In 2017, Hogan Manufacturing was spending close to $240,000 a year for electricity for its metal fabrication facility in Escalon, CA, which operates with a crew including computer-aided designers, robotic welders and plasma cutters.
The high cost of electricity drove the company’s board to analyze and procure a 730 kilowatt solar array using Mechatron Solar M18KD dual-axis trackers.
Several EPCs offered traditional ground mount solar systems of 1.2 megawatt size but the offer made by NextEnergy Systems was the lowest in capital expenditures and best in value.
Almost two years later, Hogan spends around $5,000 a month on demand charges mainly and is saving $230,000 on his annual utility bill, according to the financial data offered by the company’s CFO Joe DeBiasio, which were cross-checked with real data gathered by the system’s SolarEdge inverters.
The reason for the massive savings is that the 30.4 kW M18kD Gearless Dual-Axis Trackers operate with a yield 40% higher than fixed-tilt solar arrays and 20% higher than the single-axis trackers that dominate utility-scale solar today.
While other companies make small-scale dual axis trackers with only 24 solar panels per table, the Mechatron tracker supports 100 panels on a single pole mount, taking advantage of the late afternoon boost that the design produces compared with single-axis and fixed technology.
Reference- Clean Technica, Mechatron website