Responsible Products and Supply Chain
Overview
Nextracker designs products and solutions with careful consideration of environmental impacts and benefits to users. We collaborate with supply chain partners as they manufacture our solutions to our high-quality standards and support efficient planning for on-site projects globally.
Section Contents:
Product Design and Innovation*
Responsible Supply Chain Management
Responsible Procurement Principles and Supplier Audits
* Bolded items align to strategic framework
Related United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Responsible Products
At Nextracker, our design teams take an innovative approach to creating solar technology solutions. Our innovative design approach helps to enable new capabilities, expanding the viability of trackers across a broader range of topographical and climate conditions.
We update executives on our progress in monthly product meetings. As appropriate, we assign executive review boards to large scope, risk-oriented projects to assess program progress and oversee budgets.
Our Sustainable Products
Our focus on sustainability and environmental stewardship is core to who we are as a company. We have a suite of products across categories designed to reduce our impact on our environment and climate change.
NX Horizon
NX Horizon™, our flagship smart solar tracking solution, is a highly-chosen solar tracking system deployed and contracted on over 100 GW of solar capacity as of May 2024. NX Horizon’s unrivaled combination of integrated hardware and software is the gold standard for the utility-scale solar industry. It is known for its robust design, ease of installation, field-proven weather durability, and LCOE-optimized performance. NX Horizon’s design enhances performance and reliability while minimizing long-term operations and maintenance costs when compared to competitors. It features a reliable self-powered motor, balanced mechanical design, and independent-row architecture, offering design flexibility and reducing maintenance costs. Its self-aligning module rails and vibration-proof fasteners enable quick installation, while the decentralized, self-powered architecture allows for early commissioning and is built to withstand high winds and adverse weather.
For additional information, visit NX Horizon | The Number One Smart Solar Tracker.
NX Horizon-XTR
Designed to follow the terrain of an existing site, NX Horizon-XTR™ is designed to minimize carbon output associated with grading, preserving precious topsoil. Grading can be damaging to the local ecosystem. NX Horizon-XTR helps protect the land by:
- Avoiding destruction of native topsoil and vegetation
- Preventing habitat disruption from non-native re-vegetation
- Preventing long-term soil erosion and storm runoff
In addition, NX Horizon-XTR saves construction costs and reduces project risk for terrain-challenged projects. The latest version, XTR 1.5, doubles NX Horizon-XTR’s ability to conform to undulating terrain, further expanding opportunities for solar development on challenging sites.
For additional information, visit NX Horizon XTR | Solar Tracker for Rolling Terrain.
Agrivoltaics
At Nextracker, we want to support the agricultural community and regenerative farming practices, empowering farmers to retain their land for generations while creating a second, stable income stream. That is why Nextracker specifically designed its solar tracker to work for agrivoltaic applications, to enhance agricultural practices, and preserve biodiversity.
Nextracker’s products support agriculture and solar customers with a suite of AgriPV solutions, demonstrating that solar and farming can be synergistic. Over the last several years, our dedicated R&D Team at Nextracker Brazil’s Center for Solar Excellence has conducted controlled AgriPV experiments to optimize the application across a range of crops. Our AgriPV offerings empower landowners to find multiple uses for their land including grazing, ranching, pollinators, and arable farming.
The dual land use supported by AgriPV brings together utility-scale solar and agriculture on the same land for greater benefits all around. While cattle grazing provides a natural, economic way to maintain vegetation, agriculture improves solar performance with less dust on a cooler project site. Solar arrays also help reduce wind and protect crops from late afternoon scalding.
AgriPV reduces evapotranspiration by providing shade and reducing overall water usage. Coupled with NX Horizon-XTR, we eliminate cut-and-fill earthwork, helping maintain hearty vegetation and soil health. Our customers benefit from optimized solar tracker solutions that preserve local habitats and topsoil while delivering strong reliability, performance, and ROI.
For additional information, visit AgriPV | The Next Frontier for Solar and Agriculture.
Benefits of Agrivoltaics
Enables Dual Land Use
Preserves Topsoil
Requires Minimal Maintenance
Highly Configurable
TrueCapture
TrueCapture™ is an intelligent yield optimization and control software solution that leverages Nextracker’s unique independent-row tracker architecture, advanced sensors, and site-specific digital twin modeling to increase solar PV plant output by 1-2 percent annually for a majority of sites, and up to 4 percent on extreme terrain sites. In other words, it enables our product to produce more energy on less land, and it increases energy output during critical time periods of the day, such as early morning and evening, helping speed the transition to a solar-powered future.
Integrated with our solar tracker hardware systems, TrueCapture is fully validated by independent engineering firms, boosting project performance and financial returns on more than 300 projects and 50 GW across five continents.
Zonal Diffuse™ expands on TrueCapture’s capabilities and is a new tracking function that enhances energy generation during rapidly changing irradiance conditions.
For additional information, visit TrueCapture | Nextracker’s Solar Tracker Optimization Software.
NX Navigator
NX Navigator™ software assists solar power plant owners and operators in monitoring, controlling, and protecting their solar projects.
An intuitive dashboard helps plant managers visualize real-time operational data at the site, subfield, and individual tracker level. In addition, NX Navigator’s safety features include single-click Hurricane/Typhoon Stow and Hail Stow modes, which quickly command solar trackers to rotate to optimal tilt positions toward user-selected stow direction in response to inclement weather. This feature significantly reduces the risk of damage to the solar panels, thus also reducing the overall operations and maintenance costs.
For additional information, visit NX Navigator | Advanced Tracker Software.
Product Design and Innovation
Sustainable innovation is at the heart of everything we do at Nextracker. From the earliest days of our company, our product innovation approach has focused on doing more with less—from less steel in our products without sacrificing performance to our independent-row approach that optimizes energy production and reduces the need for terrain disturbance. We pioneered smart solar tracking technology and continue to lead the industry with our meticulous design and engineering.
Center for Solar Excellence
We operate state-of-the-art product testing facilities to conduct functional and reliability testing for individual components and complete system architectures. Our three Centers for Solar Excellence—one adjacent to our Fremont, California, headquarters, another in Brazil, and a recently opened facility in India*—serve as collaborative technology showcases and research facilities. The Centers enable our engineering teams and technology partners to develop, test, and commercialize proprietary technologies in a real-world power plant setting. Our Fremont facility additionally engages our core engineering personnel and allows us to accelerate time-to-market for new products.
* This facility was opened after July 2024
Product Life Cycle
In 2024, Nextracker introduced our NX HorizonTM Low Carbon Tracker (LCT), the industry’s first solar tracker solution with up to 35 percent reduced carbon footprint. Driven by locally sourced materials and strategic sourcing of recycled steel from domestic electric arc furnace (EAF) mills and optimized logistics, this offering not only provides third-party verified LCA methodology documentation on carbon emissions benefits throughout its entire life cycle value chain, but also ensures domestic content and supports Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) benefits. NX Horizon LCT is the newest champion in our efforts to drive a clean energy future.
For additional information, visit NX Horizon Low Carbon | Reduced Carbon Footprint Tracker.
Quality Management System
Nextracker is dedicated to product safety and quality. We certify our business and manufacturing processes and products in accordance with industry standards by implementing best practices across the company and throughout our value chain.
Our Quality Management System (QMS) establishes the guidelines and limitations that govern quality control at all levels. Nextracker is certified ISO 9001:2015 QMS, a globally recognized quality management standard, for India, Brazil, and U.S. facilities. Our QMS confirms our demonstrated and ongoing commitment to reliability, quality assurance, the environment, and safety.
Nextracker invests heavily in the Six Sigma approach for robust business process improvements and defect reduction. Since 2021, 16 members of our global team completed the requirements for Six Sigma Green Belt certification. Staff training began in October 2020 when staff identified six top opportunities for defect reduction. Subsequently, we formed six project teams consisting of staff and targeted suppliers from four countries. The projects ran from November 2020 through September 29, 2021, and we celebrated accomplishments with a graduation ceremony.
Responsible Supply Chain Management
Fostering sustainability across the solar industry benefits us all, and responsible procurement can make a significant contribution. We are committed to providing high-performing, reliable solar tracking systems and being ethical partners, enriching the communities where we do business.
As of March 31, 2024, Nextracker works with approximately 80 strategic suppliers located in 19 different countries across 5 continents to serve our key global customer markets. We have developed unique strategies with each of our strategic suppliers to optimize costs and lower risks. We intend to keep expanding our supplier manufacturing footprint to source more local materials in every market we serve.
Responsible Supply Chain Management
Given its importance to our business, we monitor our global supply chain, paying careful attention to supply chain key performance indicators (KPIs). We rely on our internal enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and have invested in solutions to further enhance real-time tracking tools, providing visibility into KPIs, designed to ensure a quick response to issues as they arise.
Our Senior Vice President of Supply Chain oversees our global vendor network, reporting to the Executive Management Team regularly. We take a proactive approach to planning for potential risks and developing strategies to mitigate them. We aim to make the best possible decisions around capacity development and supplier diversification, and we use a rigorous internal demand forecasting process to help take timely action. We maintain global business agreements with all our regular suppliers, putting terms in place to help ensure high-quality and on-time deliveries.
Responsible Sourcing
At Nextracker, we strive to comply with internationally recognized principles and best practices on human rights, environmental management, business integrity, and anti-corruption. These are core elements of our organizational operations and our entire supply chain. With our strategic suppliers, we conduct regular training and site visits. Nextracker is committed to respecting and upholding human rights throughout our supply chain through our Responsible Procurement Principles Program, and other ESG due diligence activities.
An Industry United Against Forced Labor
To underscore our commitment to forced labor prevention, we joined the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) pledge against forced labor. Through this pledge, Nextracker, along with more than 175 other leading companies across the solar industry, commits to helping to keep the solar supply chain free of forced labor, raising awareness within the industry on this critical issue, and supporting the development of an industry-led solar supply chain traceability protocol.
Collective Purchasing to Promote Responsible Steel
In September 2023, Nextracker joined the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) platform amongst other major corporations to support the advancement and acceleration of steel decarbonization efforts in the industry. The initiative drives investments in technologies that are emitting less carbon, supporting large steel customers in their efforts to reduce their supply chain emissions.
Responsible Minerals
Nextracker is committed to the responsible sourcing of minerals and to complying with all applicable laws and regulations on the use of conflict minerals.
We encourage our supply chain partners to adopt the Responsible Minerals Initiative framework (an initiative of the Responsible Business Alliance) and follow their due diligence process in addressing issues related to responsible sourcing of minerals in their supply chains.
Responsible Procurement Principles (RPP) and Supplier Audits
We are committed to purchasing and using materials from appropriate and properly authorized sources. To that end, we make the effort to build a responsible supply chain from the ground up. We are in the process of developing a pre-screen for suppliers on a series of topics, including sustainability-related topics, and we select suppliers based on their qualifications and merit.
We engage with our strategic material suppliers in a detailed risk assessment every two years. The assessment includes an online survey and an independent third-party audit for any suppliers receiving a high-risk score from the survey. The assessment aligns with Nextracker’s RPP and evaluates topics including human rights, child labor, forced labor, fair treatment, non-harassment, environmental compliance, health and safety, ethical business (anti-corruption, bribery), and management systems.
We also provide suppliers access to our accessible ethics hotline to raise any concerns regarding any improper business practices, misconduct by employees, or potential violations by any party conducting business on our behalf.
Supplier Impacts
If we identify any significant negative environmental or social issues in our supply chain, we don’t let them stand. Our CAP program is designed to take immediate improvement action on high-priority issues. In FY24, we did not identify any significant negative environmental impacts within the supply chain, including no supplier terminations. We also provide periodic training to our suppliers on various ESG topics.
Contact Us
San Francisco Bay Area
6200 Paseo Padre Pkwy Fremont, CA USA
+1 (510) 270-2500
