Nextracker and BCI Steel Renovate Abandoned Pittsburgh Steel Factory to Serve Growing U.S. Utility-Scale Solar Market

This is Nextracker's third new factory, adding to the company's new Texas and Arizona factories announced in April and May, towards building 10 GW of annual domestic solar tracker capacity  

PITTSBURGH, June 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nextracker LLC, the global market leader in utility-scale solar trackers, and BCI Steel, a Pittsburgh-based steel fabricator, today announced the reopening of the historic Bethlehem Steel manufacturing factory in nearby Leetsdale to produce solar tracker equipment for large-scale solar power plants.

The steel processing plant will incorporate both BCI Steel's new and reshored equipment shipped to the U.S. from factories in Malaysia and Brazil. Solar tracker products produced at the factory will serve rapidly growing solar markets in Pennsylvania, Indiana, New York, and Ohio.

"BCI is proud to advance Pittsburgh's legacy as the heart of America's steel industry," said Matt Carroll, CEO of BCI Steel. "This partnership with Nextracker showcases our steel fabrication and quality control technology and unlocks additional domestic solar capacity with our low-cost manufacturing."

"U.S. Steel is pleased to supply steel that is mined, melted and made in America for Nextracker's advanced solar tracker systems. We applaud Nextracker's expansion of manufacturing in Pittsburgh and other locations in the U.S." said Ken Jaycox, SVP and CCO at United States Steel Corporation. "Providing industry leading products for our customers utilizing advanced technology and fully optimized facilities is key to U. S. Steel's Best for All^® strategy."

This is the third solar tracker fabrication line Nextracker has commissioned with a steel manufacturing partner in 2022 as part of its commitment to rebuilding America's steel and solar supply chains. With additional capacity in Pittsburgh, Nextracker is building out 10 GW of "Made in America" manufacturing capacity — enough to power 7.5 million homes. Earlier this year, Nextracker opened a green steel tracker production line in Texas with JM Steel, and another dedicated steel production line in Arizona with Atkore. Under this reshoring initiative, Nextracker has already procured over 100,000 tons of U.S.-made steel so far this year, enough for approximately 5 GW of solar trackers. 

"BCI Steel's Pittsburgh factory enables the quick-ship response times we need to meet booming demand from our customers in the Mid-Atlantic and Heartland regions," said Dan Shugar, CEO and Founder of Nextracker. "This investment will increase the resilience of the U.S. solar supply chain and bring manufacturing jobs, equipment, and capacity back to America." 

The newly reopened Pittsburgh factory is ideally situated with proximity to river and rail transport in a location steeped in manufacturing history. The factory lies on the same grounds where steel fabricators built materials for tank landing ships (LSTs) during WWII.

The dedication ceremony was attended by top dignitaries and leaders from some of the world's largest clean energy companies, including the CEO of EDPR Sandhya Ganapathy and the Chief Operating Officer of Lightsource bp Ann Davies. To learn more about Nextracker's steel partners and U.S. manufacturing program, read the story, here.

Nextracker is the leading provider of intelligent, integrated solar tracker and software solutions used in utility-scale and ground-mounted distributed generation solar projects around the world. Our products enable solar panels in utility-scale power plants to follow the sun's movement across the sky and optimize plant performance. With over 50 GW shipped worldwide, Nextracker leads the solar industry with solar tracker technologies that optimize and increase energy production while reducing costs for significant plant ROI. For more information, please visit www.Nextracker.com.

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Headquartered in Leetsdale, PA just outside of Pittsburgh, BCI Steel is a global engineering, contract manufacturing and supply chain management company specializing in the production of industrial metal products for Original Equipment Manufacturers. In addition to steel fabrication, we are experts in new product development, design for manufacturing, quality control, and logistics. BCI has worked closely with Nextracker since its inception to help deliver the highest quality steel products to its solar tracker customers around the world.

For more information: https://bci-engineering.com/ 

Founded in 1901, United States Steel Corporation is a leading steel producer. With an unwavering focus on safety, the company's customer-centric Best for All® strategy is advancing a more secure, sustainable future for U. S. Steel and its stakeholders. With a renewed emphasis on innovation, U. S. Steel serves the automotive, construction, appliance, energy, containers, and packaging industries with high value-added steel products such as U. S. Steel's proprietary XG3™ advanced high-strength steel. The company also maintains competitively advantaged iron ore production and has an annual raw steelmaking capability of 22.4 million metric net tons. U. S. Steel is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with world-class operations across the United States and in Central Europe. For more information, please visit www.ussteel.com.

SOURCE Nextracker