ARENA has granted up to AUD 4.96 million in funding to Nextracker to deploy its automated foundation system in Australian solar farms
Nextracker says its NX Earth Truss system enables faster, single-step installation even on hard or uneven terrain, reducing labor needs
The project is aligned with ARENA’s Ultra Low-Cost Solar strategy as it is expected to demonstrate automation’s role in speeding solar deployment
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced up to AUD 4.96 million ($3.25 million) in funding for US-based Nextracker to deploy its new automated foundation system in solar farms across Australia, as it aims to speed up large-scale PV deployment.
Lightsource bp’s 450 MW Goulburn River Solar Farm in New South Wales (NSW) is among the projects where Nextracker will install its NX Earth Truss foundation solution.
The US company says its proprietary advanced foundation system is a GPS-guided drill-and-drive technology that’s designed to be installed in a single operation, even on the toughest sites with no separate pre-drilling rework required, unlike traditional piling methods that require a multi-step installation process. Its ‘light-on-land’ approach addresses ‘critical worker shortage’, stresses Nextracker.
According to ARENA, this technology helps overcome barriers to large-scale project development on hard soils and challenging terrain while bringing down construction timelines.
“By making previously unusable land viable for solar development, Nextracker’s innovative Earth Truss technology can help fast-track project delivery and broaden opportunities for investors and communities alike,” stated ARENA CEO Darren Miller.
ARENA says this technology can provide valuable insights into how automation can be more widely adopted in future solar projects while providing best practices to accelerate industry-wide adoption of integrated tracker and foundation installation.
ARENA’s funding of late spans not just PV manufacturing, but also automation, as it aims to build an ecosystem to accelerate solar deployment.
Earlier this year, it approved AUD 4.9 million for Luminous to roll out its AI-driven robot to automate labor-intensive solar panel installation, following AUD 1.3 million for Built Robotics Australia for its autonomous piling robots project (see Luminous Wins AUD 4.9M In ARENA’s Solar ScaleUp Challenge).
These investments are aligned with ARENA’s Ultra Low-Cost Solar (ULCS) strategy, under which it targets 30% module efficiency at an installed cost of 30 cents/W by 2030. This could achieve a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of <$20 per megawatt hour – approximately 1/3rd the cost of solar PV today.