Shipment volumes are growing within the world photo voltaic tracker market as innovation in mission growth is driving demand. Joe Steveni, of S&P Global Commodity Insights, seems on the components shaping the business panorama for trackers, from agrivoltaics and undulating terrain to India’s ambitions and the Inflation Reduction Act within the United States.
From pv journal print version 7/24
The world photo voltaic tracker market reached 94 GW by way of shipments in 2023, which is a rise from 73 GW in 2022. This is pushed by progress exterior the three largest tracker markets: the United States, Spain , and Brazil. The markets of Saudi Arabia and India specifically noticed excessive year-on-year progress, pushed by elevated demand from builders and a rise in utility-scale installations. These markets are ranked fourth and fifth largest for tracker shipments (see chart above).
Most of the tracker cargo is concentrated throughout the 45-degree latitude traces. This is as a result of the usage of trackers requires north-south rows that observe the solar from east to west. By utilizing trackers as a substitute of a set tilt system, you lose the flexibility to tilt the photo voltaic panel north or south in direction of the solar. Therefore, the usage of trackers will cut back the yield from the equator.
Two-in-portrait (2P)-oriented tracker merchandise connect twice the variety of photo voltaic modules per size of tracker row. Approximately 15% of tracker shipments in 2023 can be 2P worldwide however in Europe that quantity jumps to 30%. This is because of land restrictions in some European markets as a result of 2P requires fewer piles per kilowatt-peak of era capability. Some tasks additionally signed contracts just a few years in the past when 2P merchandise had been used extra usually, which helps clarify this desire.
Driving innovation
Innovation continues to drive the photo voltaic tracker market. In the sector of agrivoltaics, it is not uncommon to see tasks with tracker rows with a distance of eight meters to fifteen meters aside with a particular vertical “harvest” place, in order that the autos in farming entry to land. There are extra constraints that decide the minimal size of trackers. For fruit farms, there are overhead tracker designs that management how a lot daylight reaches the produce. It takes under consideration many inputs, comparable to crop degree, temperature, and evaporation and will need to have a extra complicated monitoring algorithm to match.
Another space of innovation is prefabrication, initially used to cut back labor necessities and enhance the pace of set up. New merchandise are rising that require just a few days per megawatt of era capability to be put in by 10 to twenty unskilled staff. These merchandise normally don’t use piles and are designed to suit a exact variety of modules in a transport container. Importantly, these merchandise may be repacked in a container and moved to a different website. This is very helpful for off-grid purposes the place future energy demand is unpredictable, comparable to onsite era in mines.
Tracker suppliers are additionally releasing terrain monitoring merchandise which can be suited to rolling terrain. This will cut back the quantity of cut-and-fill required to degree the bottom and make sure that tasks don’t require totally different heights of basis piles. This additionally opens up the opportunity of creating tasks in mountainous areas.
Global progress
S&P Global forecasts 752 GW of tracker installations between 2024 and 2030, with growing quantities coming from the Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East, and Africa areas. Mainland China is forecast to progressively improve tracker uptake, transferring away from the historic fixed-tilt desire as reliance on tracker know-how grows. Saudi Arabia already has a excessive uptake of trackers. Strong progress within the utility-scale phase, supplemented by potential inexperienced hydrogen websites by means of 2030, will additional drive tracker shipments. India is starting to see a rise in tracker uptake with rising reliance on know-how pushed by relationships between main tracker suppliers and native engineering, procurement, and building corporations. India can be near the equator and has low labor prices making it ultimate for trackers, resulting from low set up and operation and upkeep prices associated to labor. However, utility-scale installations in Spain and Brazil are anticipated to say no in 2030, pushed by grid challenges and decreased energy buy settlement costs, respectively.
S&P Global says the United States will account for 39% of tracker installations over the 2024-2030 interval (see chart at proper). Currently, within the United States, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) offers incentives within the type of tax credit, generally referred to as “adders,” to extend home manufacturing. The IRA breaks down the estimated value percentages for the varied elements of a utility-scale photo voltaic mission. The three primary elements are modules, trackers, and inverters; make up 66%, 9%, and 25% of the tools, respectively. These areas are additional divided into subcategories. To qualify for a tax adder, builders are required to have 40% of their mission tools made within the United States, a determine that later rose to the next proportion. To fulfill this new demand from builders, some tracker suppliers are launching “IRA-friendly” merchandise with the next proportion of their manufacturing primarily based within the United States. Nextracker, Array Technologies, GameChange, PV Hardware, FTC Solar, OMCO Solar, and Nevados all have US manufacturing operations.
The photo voltaic tracker trade is ready to expertise speedy progress and speedy change within the coming years. With evolving markets and manufacturing areas, suppliers should constantly innovate to allow tasks that had been beforehand not possible. This dynamic panorama presents thrilling alternatives for the trade to push the boundaries and drive the adoption of photo voltaic power.
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