Zetwerk Owned Unimacts Opens Second US Plant For Nextracker

By Saur News Bureau/ Updated On Wed, Jun 19th, 2024

Unimacts, a manufacturing services company that was acquired by Indian contract manufacturing startup Zetwerk in 2022, has expanded its relationship with leading US solar tracker maker Nextracker.

Unimacts has opened up its second manufacturing facility in Sloan, Nevada for Nextracker to make steel torque tubes, a key component of Nextracker’s solar trackers. This new facility follows an earlier facility in Las Vegas that was opened last year. Nextracker has been on a strong growth spree, benefiting from a strong domestic market in the US as well as growing demand in key overseas markets for its trackers. Over the past three years, the firm has expanded or established 20 manufacturing facilities in the US itself. With the 2 GW of total contribution from Unimacts, Nextracker’s annual domestic solar tracker capacity is now over 30GW according to the firm. The firm is also a significant beneficiary from the IRA in the US.

For the Zetwerk owned Unimacts, the Nextracker opportunity is obviously welcome, even as parent firm Zetwerk has also been expanding on its presence in the solar sourcing and manufacturing segment aggressively. The segment contributed close to 30% of its revenues last year, according to reports.

Tracker demand is expected to grow in the coming years as utility scale solar plants continue to be set up across the world. with over 31 countries worldwide expected to add over 1 GW of solar in a year in 2024. While the top 5, or top 10 countries worldwide account for almost 85% of new solar capacities, notably China alone which accounts for almost 50% of the expected 650 GW of new capacity in 2024, key Nextracker markets like the US, India, Europe and Brazil are also expected to grow significantly.