Mechatron-Solar, with headquarters in Redwood City, Calif., is an international manufacturer of large photovoltaic trackers. The company’s single-axis, dual-axis and CPV trackers are designed to maximize performance in any climate and terrain condition. Mechatron’s trackers incorporate patented hydraulic motion mechanisms that offer high rotation accuracy, and the astronomical algorithm of its software platform offers an accurate daily tracking function. We asked Mechatron a few questions about its trackers in the following Q&A.
Mechatron has deployed over 800 projects in Europe since 2007.
SPW: Mechatron is relatively new to the United States, but the company has more than 3,500 solar trackers operating in Europe. Why did the company decide to bring its technology to the U.S. now?
Mechatron: The European solar market enjoyed a rapid growth for a number of consecutive years until late 2012 when regulations changes and particular tariffs drastic drops begun a steep decline in solar growth and resulted in solar stagnation. Mechatron has been monitoring closely the US market and only recently – beginning of 2013 – we realized that the combination of States subsidies and tax incentives, the exponential increase of capital and debt finance investments and the rapid decrease of BoS costs were driving the solar market in the US to unprecedented growth rates. We analyzed the US market potential and decided that our products innovation, projects development experience and track record in Europe were unique and decisive factors for the company to expand its footprint in the US solar marketplace. In the beginning of 2014 the company established a new legal entity and commenced technical assessment trials at the PV USA facility in Davis run by PV Evolution Labs. As of September of 2014 the company has officially started its sales and marketing activities and building the assembly facility necessary to develop its products for the US customers.
We know trackers deliver increased performance over fixed-mount systems. Beyond that, what is the key benefit of Mechatron’s solar trackers specifically?
Mechatron has developed a unique technology for its rotation mechanism, already protected with international patent, that incorporates zero backlash capability, auto-protection slippage in extreme torque situations, auto-stow and return to tracking software routines under windy conditions or power outages. The ideal combination of mechanics and software algorithms guarantees uninterrupted operations that are immune to external conditions, thus minimizing downtime and maintenance requirements, therefore maximizing electricity production for the duration of PPA contracts. Additionally, our tracking mechanics using quadruple optical conductors and position-based tracer offer the highest accuracy offered by any tracker in the market today. Our standard pv dual-axis tracker D170 was measured by PV Evolution Labs at the PV USA facility in Davis, CA at ±1 of a degree for both azimuthal and zenith movements while our CPV tracker was measured at ±0.1 of a degree accuracy, making the C140 the most accurate tracker in the CPV marketplace.
In Europe, where do you typically see the Mechatron trackers?
Mechatron’s majority of installations are in utility projects with the off-taker being the State owned electric company. Since the concept of Net Metering was not incorporated in the solar programs in the EU countries, almost all on-grid solar farms deployed with Mechatron trackers were selling their electricity production to local utilities. The recent introduction of Net Metering in the solar regulations will enrich the opportunities to implement Mechatron’s trackers in large commercial and agricultural installations.
What interest has Mechatron received from the U.S. solar market?
In less than 2 months in sales and marketing, Mechatron has enjoyed a great positive reaction from developers, EPCs and solar investors in the California and Arizona areas. We have already signed agreements with regional solar developers and have started developing technical studies for a number of medium size projects in excess of 15MW capacity. We have seen great response and collaboration interest from solar companies specialized in agricultural applications, commercial and industrial projects and develop small to medium size utilities projects under RAM schedules.
A Mechatron tracker is a very large piece of equipment. The dual-axis machine spans 55 feet. What considerations regarding labor and cost must be made when a developer is looking at this technology?
Mechatron is transferring its long projects management and deployment experience from Europe to the US market by training the technical teams of its customers in order to optimize the installation time per tracker on the field. Average installation time per dual-axis tracker, including panels installation and cabling, is less than 4 technicians for one day. Comparing the 28-33KW installed capacity per day by 4 technicians to same DC power on fixed mounting structures, a developer can realize substantial savings on labor costs that can reach almost 50% when install solar projects with Mechatron’s trackers. In addition to labor costs savings, if the terrain of the land requires earth-moving and flattening works, in which case Mechatron’s trackers are immune and indifferent due to their ballasted-base small footprint, then the additional savings for the solar developers are really substantial.
What kind of regular maintenance is required?
The unique technical characteristics of our trackers with rock-solid rotation mechanism, zero backlash capabilities and slippage protection are practically the reasons Mechatron’s tracker require minimum to almost zero maintenance efforts. The company offers to its customers 10 years parts and mancraftship warranty combined with annual preventive maintenance contract at less than 2% of the trackers acquisition cost. The preventive maintenance contract provides annual physical inspection of the equipment and covers all labor costs for repairs, should they rarely occur.
Finally, we come to money. What is the average installed cost per watt for a Mechatron solar tracker?
The cost in terms of $/W of the trackers depend greatly on the wattage installed on the trackers and can vary from$0.49/watt to as low as $0.42/watt. The higher the DC power installed on the trackers the lower the purchase cost for both the azimuthal (single-axis) and dual-axis models. The retail price for the D170 is $14,700 ex works our factories and $10,700 for the azimuthal S140.
Evaluating the total cost in $/W of a solar system incorporating the D170 and comparing it with an equivalent using fixed-tilt mounting system, the additional cost in capital expense is less than $0.30/W which additional capex is amortized in 1-3 years depending on the tariff schedule the project operates while it produces additional revenues, higher return on investment IRR (12-45%) and dropping the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) to as low as 6.6 c/W. SPW