The Americas were the largest solar tracker markets last year, according to research from U.S.-owned analyst Wood Mackenzie.
The U.S. Nextracker subsidiary owned by Singapore-based electronics giant Flex was, once again, the largest global supplier of trackers. Four Spanish firms featured in the top ten by market share last year, with Madrid-based PV Hardware and Gonvarri Steel Industries-owned Solar Steel positioned third and tenth, respectively. Soltec, based in Murcia, was the fourth largest supplier and Pamplona-based STI Norland the sixth. The NClave business owned by Chinese solar manufacturer Trina Solar also has Spanish origins.
New Mexico-based Array Technologies was one of two U.S. providers among the leaders, with the second largest market share, with New York’s GameChange Solar ninth. China’s Arctech Solar was the fifth biggest supplier of trackers and German company Ideematec the eighth.
WoodMac estimated the global tracker market grew 20% last year with the market slightly less concentrated even if the top ten companies accounted for 88% of business. The analyst said most of the leading firms shipped 1.5-2 times more product last year than in 2018.
Markets
The fastest-growing regional market was the United States, which accounted for half last year’s tracker shipments, a rise of 226%.
Further south, Mexico, Brazil and Chile led a Latin American market which was the world’s second largest in 2019. Soltec, Nextracker and STI Norland were the biggest beneficiaries in that market, with the latter boasting 40% of the Brazilian market.
Arctech, Nextracker and Array Technologies took the top three positions in the Asia-Pacific region. However, Australia – the region’s largest market – experienced a 10% market contraction last year thanks to a declining large scale solar segment which is expected to continue to shrink this year.
Rival analyst IHS Markit predicted in August the 2019-23 period would see the deployment of more than 150 GW of tracker systems as the technology becomes used in around a third of ground-mounted projects.
