Nevados has started manufacturing its all-terrain solar mounting and tracking equipment in Mount Pleasant in East Texas at the facility of Priefert Steel. The use of locally manufactured steel for the production of its trackers here will help developers, owners and operators qualify for bonus tax credits for domestic content under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), it added.
According to the US Department of Treasury's draft guidance of May 2023 about domestic content bonus under the IRA, the government encouraged the use of domestically produced steel and iron.
While it has not revealed the annual production capacity of its new solar production line on site, Nevados says by the end of 2023 it will have contracted for enough trackers to supply about 1.5 GW of solar generating capacity in the US.
"Domestic supply chains can be both more robust and more efficient, such as by reducing shipping times and associated carbon emissions and pollution," said Nevados CEO Yezin Taha. He added that buying as much domestic equipment as is available now helps prepare solar developers for a future when more US module capacity is online.
Nevados specializes in all-terrain solar trackers that it says can fit natural, flat, sloped and rolling terrain, doing away with the need for land grading and thus reducing costs.
In February 2023, it signed a 2 GW order deal with utility-scale solar developer Ampliform (see 2 GW Solar Tracker Supply Deal For Nevados In US).