With the introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Bill, government agencies are putting their might behind renewable projects, offering grants for research and development as well as directly subsidizing projects to help encourage installation.
However helpful these programs are, they aren’t doing much to change the 500,000 person-and-growing skilled labor shortage that is creating a major bottleneck for new solar projects. It’s not uncommon to see a project sit in limbo for months because of the challenges faced in finding the people needed to complete an installation.
That isn’t the only challenge labor shortages create. In tight labor markets, labor scarcity can also drive up wages. Over hundreds of megawatts worth of installations, those extra wages add up, creating a significant impact on project costs.
Better by Design
At Nevados we understand how hard it can be to keep projects on schedule and on budget. As a result, our team has worked diligently to reduce labor risk for our customers.
From the start, Nevados’ goal has been to develop the most terrain-capable tracker system on the market; an innovative hardware, software, and controls package designed to go where others cannot. What might not be obvious to all however, is that the same design philosophy that delivers unparalleled terrain performance also allows for unmatched installation efficiency. Through direct consultation with our customers, we deliver hardware designs that make installation of the TRACE All Terrain TrackerⓇ significantly easier and more efficient than any of the legacy tracker providers – even on the most challenging terrain.
Attention to Design Detail Pays Dividends
In a recent study by solar construction consultants Eclipse-M, Nevados was ranked first in installation time among all other market relevant trackers. The analysis shows the Nevados tracker requires only 118 labor hours per megawatt installed, the lowest by a considerable margin for any comparable tracker. In comparison, Eclipse-M determined that the leading legacy trackers require between 159 to 244 labor hours per megawatt, meaning the best of the legacy trackers takes 35% longer to install compared to the Nevados solution. These figures are all delivered while exhibiting, according to Eclipse-M, the “highest level of tolerance observed for any 1P tracker”
Features of the design of TRACE that enable this efficiency include:
- Pre-assembled components: The 1-piece bearing assembly and pre-assembled top-down clamps significantly reduce installation time and labor.
- Auto-alignment: The advanced coupler and post connection design simplifies alignment for faster installation on any terrain.
- Single-worker installation: Key TRACE installation steps, including the bearing assembly, drive system, and modules, can be installed by a single worker.
The combination of all the thoughtful features designed in TRACE led Eclipse-M to state it is an “Impressively simple and productive system to install.”, and that “this is the first tracker case Eclipse-M has studied where achieving less than 100 hours/MW is possible.”
Bringing it All Together
These installation efficiencies, combined with the fact that our tracking solution requires zero site grading, gives TRACE a construction timeline no other tracker solution can match.
Amid a labor squeeze, where every hour matters, developers need a solution that puts installation efficiency first and doesn’t require expensive add-ons to deliver performance. From the ground up, Nevados has thoughtfully designed its solution with its customers’ needs in mind. Let the Nevados TRACE All Terrain Tracker solution work for you.
The Full Eclipse-M constructability report is available for download at: https://nevados.solar/constructability-report-summary/
