NEXTracker, a Flex company, has launched an innovative solar plus energy-storage solution for U.S. and international markets. NX Fusion Plus integrates the latest solar tracker, battery, inverter, and software to deliver better return on investment to owners of solar power plants. By incorporating battery storage technology into its product, NEXTracker is further increasing the energy output and duration of solar power plants, just as tracking technology did for fixed-tilt solar applications.
"NX Fusion Plus is an incredibly powerful development for the energy industry," said NEXTracker CTO Alex Au. "Our goal has always been to identify the best technologies for addressing solar generation's intermittency. We can now dispatch uninterrupted clean energy in the most effective manner possible for the customer. Our tracker becomes the data acquisition backbone of the plant, offering complete system analytics and monitoring. NX Fusion Plus enables higher return on investment than solar alone because we can now utilize more clipped1 energy and offset demand charges for end users. This is particularly attractive to customers such as farms in the Central Valley of California. We can also provide stable, reliable power in countries such as India, where power fluctuates."
The NX Fusion Plus enables customers to use more solar energy throughout the day while simultaneously lowering their electricity bills. As the #1 solar tracker supplier worldwide, NEXTracker is able to leverage economies of scale with parent company, Flex. In order to bring solar + storage into the mainstream, NEXTracker leverages Flex's secure data platform with NEXTracker's predictive smart control software, which is already embedded in the tracker's electronics. Complementing this product portfolio is machine learning capability, acquired through the purchase of BrightBox earlier this year, which optimizes solar power plant performance and reduces operations and maintenance (O&M) costs.
"We are excited about the new opportunities that NX Fusion Plus opens up for our agricultural customers," says Dylan Dupre, CEO of CalCom Solar. "It's a perfect match for distributed generation power plants. With large-scale solar + storage and smart software and controls, our customers will have a solution that lowers their energy bill and peak hour demand charges. We're anticipating an enhanced ROI from the savings NX Fusion Plus can create through demand management and energy load shifting."
Prior to the advent of solar trackers, fixed-tilt systems were the only mounting option for PV and delivered a single output profile. With the maturity of the solar power plants and accompanying technologies – such as NEXTracker's advanced self-powered tracker– the solar generation curve has broadened, delivering more energy production to owner-operators. With NEXTracker's solar + storage solution, NX Fusion Plus, the tracker generation curve is now even further broadened, by shifting excess energy from peak periods to later in the day.
"This solution brings together the NEXTracker protocol, the machine learning and predictive analytics capability of Brightbox and Flex's cyber-secure software platform to ultimately deliver more value to the end-user," noted Scott Graybeal, Senior Vice President, Flex Energy Solutions.
