The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has awarded up to $4.96 million to Nextracker for the deployment of proprietary robotics and tracker systems at multiple solar sites, including the Goulburn River Solar Farm in New South Wales.
Nextracker will partner with solar project developers and EPC contractors to implement these technologies, aiming to automate foundational installation at scale and to reduce both risks and overall costs for large-scale solar in Australia.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller emphasised the importance of cost reduction in large-scale solar: "Ultra low-cost solar is not the solar we know today. Current solar PV technology is sufficiently mature and cost-effective to deploy at scale. However, much cheaper solar is vital to help to decarbonise create green export opportunities and support the decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sectors."
The initiative introduces Nextracker's NX Earth Truss foundation to the Australian market, which streamlines solar panel support installation. Peter Wheale, Nextracker Australia's Vice President and General Manager, stated, "Simplifying and optimising the most labour-intensive phase of solar construction for any soil or terrain condition is a real breakthrough. With over 10 GW of solar trackers already deployed in Australia, we're excited to bring technology innovation that not only cuts costs and build time but also enables projects to succeed in sites that were previously too complex or costly to develop."
NX Earth Truss foundations install in a single pass, contrasting with the multi-step methods of traditional piling. This process reduces timelines, labour, equipment use, and ground impact. The technology assists large-scale solar projects in overcoming obstacles from hard soils and uneven terrain, delivering faster, more cost-effective, and scalable solar installations.
The deployment supports ARENA's Ultra Low-Cost Solar strategy by reducing balance of plant costs through automation. Lessons from this demonstration will provide essential data and best practices for broad uptake of integrated tracker and foundation installation across the Australian solar industry.
