Q1 2026 Nextracker Inc Earnings Call
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for standing by. My name is Jason, and I will be your conference operator today.
Today's call is being recorded.
I would like to welcome everyone to next trackers. First quarter fiscal year 2026 earnings call.
After the speakers remarks, there will be a Q&A session.
At this time for opening remarks, I like to pass a call over to Miss Sarah, Lee have investor relations.
Sarah, you may be getting
thank you and good afternoon everyone. Welcome to next rapper's first quarter fiscal year 2026 earnings call. I'm Sarah Lee next rapper head of investor relations and I'm joined by Dan shiver, our CEO and founder. Howard Winger. Our president and Chuck Boonton our CFO.
following brief prepared remarks, we will transition to a Q&A session
As a reminder, there will be a replay of this call posted on the IR website, along with the earnings press release and shareholder letter.
Today's call contains statements regarding our business financial performance and operations, including our business and our industry. These may be considered forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations.
Both statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions, and expectations and speak only as of the current date.
Investors next driver.com.
This information is subject to change and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, as a result of new information, future events or changes in our expectations.
Please note, we will provide gaap and non-gaap measures on today's call. The full non-gaap to gaap. Reconciliations can be found in the appendix to the press release and the shareholder letter, as well as the financial section of the IR website. And now I will turn the call over to our CEO and founder Dan.
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm pleased to report our strong start to fiscal year 2026, building on the momentum we established last year.
Next tracker continues to deliver consistent growth and strong financial performance. Driven by technological leadership operational excellence and Relentless focus on customer value.
We delivered robust financial results across all key metrics. Q1 revenue grew 20% year-over-year to $864 million, and adjusted EBITDA increased 23% to $215 million.
Our backlog hit a new record of over 4.75 billion reflecting healthy, Global demand and increasingly strong competitive position.
We also continue to generate solid cash flow and strengthen our balance sheet.
We're particularly pleased with our strong q1 performance. Considering the evolving US policy environment.
Our ability to consistently execute in challenging conditions speaks to the strength of our team, differentiated products, and the quality of our customer relationships.
1 of the most impactful developments in the quarter was the passage of the obv, a Reconciliation bill, which addressed a significant portion of the uncertainty surrounding solar manufacturing and investment tax credits.
While further clarification is expected particularly around treasury guidance and safe harbor provisions.
We Believe next track record is well, positioned by virtue of our deep backlog and highly flexible us supply chain.
We've worked tirelessly with our suppliers to open and expand over 25 manufacturing facilities across the United States.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, reported that solar accounted for more than 80% of new US generation capacity in 2024 globally. Solar contributed more than twice as much incremental electricity as the next largest energy source.
I'm looking forward.
The International Energy agency. Predicts, that solar will become the largest source of global electricity Supply within the next decade.
These powerful trends reinforce our conviction that solar and extraction, in particular, will play a central role in the future of energy.
We're scaling our platform to address this rapidly expanding opportunity and announced this morning. 3, strategic Acquisitions in the fields of Robotics and AI.
The Technologies from autonomous inspection and robotic, cleaning to 3D site mapping integrate directly with our control and monitoring systems to help customers optimize performance reduce onm costs and lower risk.
This initiative is exemplifies our strategy of combining breakthrough, engineering with digital innovation.
to deliver more value across the full life cycle of the project,
As we move beyond being the global leader in solar trackers and evolve into a broader technology platform for utility-scale solar, we're excited to provide a more detailed look into our strategy at our upcoming Capital Markets Day. Today, on November 12th, at our headquarters,
With that, I'll turn it over to our president. Howard Winger to go deeper into our q1 performance and the exciting developments across our technology portfolio.
Thank you, Dan.
Q1 was another great quarter for next tracker. Marked by strong customer bookings and backlog and excellent, operational delivery.
This forward momentum continues to be driven by a flight to Quality in the market.
As Dan noted, our performance is special incuring, given the ongoing U.S. policy dynamics, and further underscores the strength of our global leadership position.
According to Wood, McKenzie.
Next tracker is now the number 1 tracker provider worldwide for the 10th consecutive year. Increasing our market share to 26% during 2024
We are pleased to report that we are also the top provider in Europe, highlighted by flagship projects like the 550 megawatt Rico solar power plant, which is one of the largest in the region.
Moving to pricing costs and project timing.
In q1 pricing for next. Tracker was generally stable and the company continued to manage costs. Well,
Project timing was also stable and manageable on a portfolio basis with some projects accelerating and some pushing out consistent with previous quarters.
Our backlog and large project portfolio provided excellent visibility and helped reduce uncertainty.
On the product side, we continue to experience strong demand for our core and its Horizon tracker systems and through capture technology.
Our recently introduced hail Pro system and expanded XPR, tracker series are seeing rapid adoption with quarter over quarter sales up 43% and 22% respectively.
Hailpro is winning in the market due to its ability to reduce both hail damage risk and insurance costs.
This is yet another example of innovation driven by customer feedback, and in this case, the insurance industry.
We are pleased by the positive traction. We are seeing as our technology platform expands to a more complete solution including adding foundations and eboss to our industry-leading tracker systems.
Our foundation products and services continue to gain momentum with cumulative sales of NX earth Trust now exceeding 1 gigawatt.
We're also excited by customer reaction to our new evos Solutions, which we began selling during the quarter.
We are optimistic about our ability to significantly scale our EVOS production.
As Dan mentioned, we recently executed a series of strategic technology Acquisitions, extending our platform and capabilities in robotics Automation and AI.
This includes acquiring the company's onsite technology in a mere robotics and the IP from Seth Hawk.
These Acquisitions complement. Our own internal efforts by incorporating ground-based robots, and drones to provide incremental customer value across the full Project Life Cycle.
Answer is autonomous, inspection robots, and field-based detection, Technologies are already in use and available for immediate sale to us customers.
We'll be providing detailed global rollout plans for these new products at a later date.
To lead us in this rapidly emerging area. We have appointed Dr. Francesco belly as our new Chief Ai and robot.
Sir.
Dr. Burelli is a globally recognized leader in AI and predictive model-based control systems.
He brings Decades of experience and autonomous Technologies and he played a key role in developing our true capture program.
We're very excited about the potential of AI, robotics, and automation to further enhance the full customer experience and help drive project life cycle value.
With that, I will now turn it over to our Chief Financial Officer, Chuck Buenon, to go over our financial results in more detail.
Thank you, Howard and good afternoon everyone. I'm pleased to share our financial results for our first quarter of fiscal year 2026.
Q1 Revenue was 864 million, representing year-over-year growth of 20%.
To $1 adjusted EBITDA, expanded to $215 million, a 23% increase year-over-year.
To an adjusted EBITDA margin of 25%, which was an increase of approximately 100 basis points compared to the previous year.
Our adjusted gross margin was 33%.
We recognized 150 basis point benefit in q1 for 45x related to historical shipments.
We continue to believe that our gross margins should be in the low. 30s with Opex and the 9 to 10% range, yielding operating margins in the low 20s.
On the cash side, we generated $70 million in adjusted free cash flow during the quarter, down from the same period last year, primarily driven by growth investments in capital expenditures and working capital.
We see strong cash generation throughout the year with over 450 million of free cash flow.
With 743 million in total cash with no debt.
Our strong balance sheet and cash flow, generation remain competitive advantages.
Looking ahead, our Outlook assumes the current US policy environment remains in effect. And in addition that permitting processes and timelines will remain consistent with historical levels.
As Dan mentioned, we are closely monitoring potential updates to safe harbor provisions and other regulatory actions that could impact the project, timing, customer investment behavior, and our financial results.
For the full year, fiscal 2026. We expect Revenue to be in the range of 3.2 to 3.45 billion with relatively balanced, quarterly revenue for the remainder of the year.
Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $750 million to $810 million.
And adjusted diluted EPS to be in the range of $3.96 to $4.27 per share.
Our increased outlook is grounded in several key factors, including the strength and diversity of our backlog, a continued flight to quality among solar developers, and the deep capability and commitment of our global team.
With that, we're happy to answer any questions you may have.
Operator.
If you'd like to ask a question please press star. Followed by 1 on your telephone keypad.
If for any reason you'd like to remove that question, please press star followed by 2.
Again, to ask a question, is it star 1 on your telephone keypad?
Our first question is from Dimple Gosai with Bank of America. Your line is now open.
Thank you. Um, thanks for taking the question. Can you please discuss? You know what conversations have looked like with developers? Both the obv? Are they kind of in wait and see mode? Um, and maybe you can also just expand on bookings momentum. I know you've um, grown from what you previously, described a significantly higher than 4 and a half billion to 4.7 this quarter. Um but you know is that pace of booking speaking up or any commentary they would would really be helpful. Thank you.
Hi, uh, GLE. This is Howard Wenger. Um, so we are in touch with our owner-developers closely. And, uh, let me just start off by saying we're really happy with the company's performance and pleased with the quarter, and the outlook for the year. Um,
And what we're hearing is that they're feeling good about their portfolios and as you know we team up with Tier 1 developers who are quite sophisticated, they're able to save Harbor, their projects and uh perfect their projects and we feel what we're hearing. And what we're seeing is that our backlog is solid.
No projects are dropping out.
uh, and
You know, we're, we're looking forward to continuing to execute and uh the sales team did a great job in the quarter.
We had another sequential growth in our backlog.
Quarter over quarter 15th, quarter in a row. And so we're seeing uh uh, a good.
Set up demand signals, uh, across the globe. So, feeling very good about where we're at, at the at this moment.
Our next question is from Frankie. Satish with Wells. Fargo Line is now
Thanks uh, good afternoon. Maybe I'll I'll touch on the new, your new business here, the Venture into Ai and Robotics I I I know you'll probably offer more details um, at the analyst day. But um just just generally are you planning to, to offer these Solutions as a service with the recurring Revenue stream? Or will this be primarily an equipment sale model? And then how do these robotic Acquisitions integrate with your existing, um, true capture software? Are there any synergies here for given that? You'll have all these extra data points. And can this all be wrapped up as 1 service
Hi Cris, uh, Dan triggered here.
We're so excited about the suite of robotics technologies that we've just launched in terms of the go-to-market.
That we brought in today. For example, we have a a drones. We've actually we completed the acquisition of this technology. Uh multiple quarters ago that's already being used. That's integrated into our existing true capture uh technology where from uh using the uh technology from sense, Hawk that we acquired. We're using that to actually create a complete as build digital twin of the sites being used in our true capture technology. That's been implemented for a very long time already in use and that's happening and that goes with our uh true capture. We have these other Technologies with robotic cleaning and with the on-site Technologies.
where we have both a ground-based robot and a
Uh stationary um camera that detects a fire and and other uh parameters on site. So how that's integrated in? Uh we'll be getting into greater detail later. But these
Technologies are well long, they're either being offered commercially today or they're in uh fairly Advanced stage of productization.
Thanks.
Our next question is from Brian Lee with Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.
Hey guys. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. Um, just just had 2, um, you know, 1 uh, Howard, going back to the common around backlog. You said it did grow colder on quarter. I know you changed kind of the language, semantics a bit. So I wanted to confirm that. That was the case.
It did grow and and I guess that implies, you know, bookings were 900 million, maybe close to a billion again. And uh curious if anything in the quarter you saw pauses from customers due to policy uncertainty or vice versa. Any pull forwards to try to get ahead of um you know, the bill passage and and how to follow up.
Got it. Hi, Brian. So yeah, I want to confirm our backlog grew quarter over quarter.
Uh, your math.
Yeah, you can do the math in terms of uh and you just did it in terms of what we booked.
Um, at least, we didn't get in the ballpark we did. That's a number that we don't disclose, but yeah, it's our backlog group quarter on quarter for the 15th consecutive quarter for the company. I'm happy about that. And, um, what we're seeing is the pipeline is actually growing for the company.
as you know, we have a global business, um, and we're still, you know, roughly tracking on the 1/3 2/3 as we grow
2/3 being North America and 1/3 plus the world.
And we're not seeing Poland's, per se, when we talk about North America and the U.S. in particular; we're not seeing Poland's on projects.
Um,
like in a very broad. Systemic way. We're seeing some pull-ins. We're seeing some push outs and those are odd characterized. Those as normal.
Because we have a broad portfolio projects.
And just that's the way project schedules are. Some can pull in from one quarter of the next; some can push out. It's very normal.
uh,
Uh, facts fact pattern with respect to operations now.
There is uh we expect Clarity on the treasury guidance. Coming up in a few weeks.
That could change some customer behavior. We don't know, and we'll know then. And we are seeing some limited amount of Safe Harbor interest.
Uh, and uh, we're prepared to address that.
With our very robust supply chain and flex capacity.
So hopefully that gives you more color and you had a, a follow-on project
Um, in relation to gross margin, maybe going forward. Is it going to stay at that level? Is there a flat line? Does it go down? Thanks, guys.
Yep, thanks, Brian. This is Chuck. Um, so we did have a really strong quarter. 45x was a little higher than normal. I mentioned in the prepared remarks about 150 basis points. That's a little more than $10 million incremental benefit, and that's really relating back to kind of vendor reconciliations going back the last couple of years. Looking forward, we expect it to be call it 9 to 10% of total revenue. Uh, that's a little higher than it's been; that's partially driven by U.S. demand for U.S.-made products. So we're actually delivering more U.S. products to our customers, and with that, the costs are a little higher, but the 45x credit helps to offset that. So I do want to call out and say thank you to our operations team. They have just done a phenomenal job. Our on-time delivery is incredible, and we're delivering local around the world and the U.S. A role hallmark, working with our manufacturing partners.
Uh, to deliver really compelling. Uh, us-made content that does generate uh 45x credit benefit offsetting higher costs. Thank you.
All right, thanks, guys. I'll pass it on.
Our next question is from Philip Shen with Broth Capital Partners. Your line is now open.
Hey guys, thanks for taking the questions. Uh, first 1 is on, um, your backlog uh, what percentage of the backlog is Safe Harbor. And then um, can you talk separately on? Uh, what kind, you know how much risk there is with the uh Trump executive order expected to be released uh August 18th. And then finally as it relates to the interior memo uh where the secretary has to review all the permitting um for projects that touch federal land. Um when you look at your backlog, what kind of impact could that?
Have um, depending on how they enforce that, thanks.
Hey Bill, Dan sugar here.
Howard and I will tag team on this.
You know, we were thinking about this in preparation for this call, and we were reflecting on the run-up over the last, let's say, year.
Or even longer, you know, well, what percentage was Safe Harbor. You know, when we asked our Tier 1 customers, how did they feel about the Integrity of their pipeline, their projects, they feel what they feel good about it because I say Harvard under, you know, the rules that existed. So I'd say so when you ask a question I think a lot of
Projects in the United States benefited from that.
Um, but that's taking the longer view on the paperwork. How do you want to pick it up from there?
Sure. I mean you we heard a next arrows. Call that they feel uh, good about their portfolio through 2029.
Uh, and that's they're indicative. They're 1 of the leading developers in the country but we and we work with them and others Tier 1 customers like them.
Uh who Echo, what? Dan said. They feel very good about their their pipelines. They're able to manage it from from a safe harbor perspective. And so we believe that a very high percentage of our backlog, that's us is a safe harbor to answer your question directly and uh, like the like vast majority of it. Okay. That's that's the way that's based on the information that we have.
Um, as far as risk, again I point to the next era call.
there, you know, we don't it's early to digest what the Interior Department uh you know guidelines are and what the treasury is going to come out with in a few weeks and so we're I think the industry is still digesting it but
they're
What we're hearing is that it's manageable. You know that the early read on this is that it's manageable going forward and that they're through the OBB, which was the bill that was passed that provided— that was actually a good outcome. We think, based on our close proximity with customers, that it is providing the bridge that's needed.
To be on, uh, you know, the incentive platform that we've been on for the last couple of years. So
Uh, that should give you a, I think we've got your questions, Bill. Thank you.
Great, thanks.
Our next question is from Julian. DuMan Smith with Jeff Beast, your line is now open.
Hey, good afternoon team, thanks for the time. Let me just continue on that same line of thinking here, just first, uh, higher level question. I mean, how do you think about the Cadence of of the overall industry if you think about? Um, both Safe, Harbor dynamics, that you're seeing on Poland, um, as well as potentially some of that, um, Safe Harbor material, um, you know, falling off, 29 2030. How do you think about, um, how that squares with the timing of orders, and a potential eventual pickup with with backline activity? Clearly not as meaningful here at the very near term, but how does it square with what you're expecting here at 25 through, you know, call it the next 4 years.
Timing West.
So, uh,
The connection was a little bit, um, janky there, but we, I think we got the gist of it, Julian. Thank you.
so so we think look 1 thing that we did is
Under Pam's leadership, and with the Ops Team working hand in glove, the US domestic supply chain has really spun up over the last few years. We are the first company to come out with a 100% domestic tracker.
We've only increased capacity. Since then, we have over 25 facilities feeding our U.S. business, and we're in a really good position with a lot of.
Flex capacity, very significant capacity.
And the reason why we point that out is: should the rules dictate that? Let's just say the Safe Harbor requirement goes up from 5%. Hypothetically, we don't know, but let's just say it was double, to 10%. We're in a position to serve our customers with additional Safe Harbor capability.
And so, yeah, there could be some, you can call it Poland, you can call it whatever you want, but there could be additional shipments.
Uh, by next track or depending on the guidance that comes out.
Yeah, I'll just pile on to Howard's comment. Um, that.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Has mapped that shows last year.
Over 80% of the power capacity you saw in the United States was solar.
and,
Lawrence Berkeley lab, which is funded, by the US Department of energy.
Calculated, oh, almost 7,000 projects are sold in solar plus storage. You know, there's this incredible need for power in the United States, period. You see it dominating the news. The headlines—people are talking about it.
You know, there are other ways to make power, and there's limited availability of gas turbines. Nuclear's way out there in terms of the time frame.
And solar is available, affordable, and has no fuel risk. And so,
We also see now storage in Urgot.
And California.
At incredible scale, keeping the lights on, you can look at the demand, you know,
today and from last week online and see that with batteries, the solar power is available till 10 11:00 p.m.
Folks are going to sleep and the power dropped.
So we think that this is going to be an endurance story, we have a very compelling manufacturing and Jobs made in the USA energy dominance, uh, facts on the ground situation, uh, we see policy makers responding to that. So,
Um, we see the US, uh, Market, despite a lot of fluidity as it's been up into the right? Our back wall, reflects that our bookings reflect that, and our revenues reflect that. Meanwhile, we're continuing to expand overseas as Howard mentioned. Uh, we achieve leadership in Europe as the number 1, uh, provider in Europe, and we saw our total
Market share globally, increase from 23% in 2023 to 26% in 2024. That's what we would double digit increase globally. So we're really focused on serving the global market being Global manufacturer provides tremendous strength.
Started over 5 years. Obviously, you guys have a needless day Target at November here.
On diversification, I know you kind of said there are a couple of them out there.
But the broader set, more specific sense. You can start defending into that once they're here. Yeah.
Our connections have body; your connection is quite spotty. Uh, but we'll speak to the growth in non-track or.
Technologies. So, let's do a quick review.
We acquired a machine learning company about 10 years ago called Brightbox. We built a fantastic software business.
That.
Created tremendous value for customers helped with stickiness with our our track or overall value proposition and proof. The yield of traffic, it also demonstrated that next tracker knows how to work with companies that we acquire and get the, get the technology integrated in a way. That's a creative. Um, a creative then last summer, we acquired, uh, the 2 Foundation companies, uh, and we've introduced those products in a major launch, that Suite of products is going very well with Incredible customer uptake. Uh, we're ahead of plan uh, from a sales standpoint and we're integrating the Ops very pleased with how that's going so far that
That those Technologies.
Have been.
Focused in the United States, we do plan on launching the foundation technologies and selected international markets next year.
The TrueCapture software suite I mentioned a moment ago has been offered globally for many years and, in fact, is on the uptake internationally now. In the last quarter, we...
A products.
Uh, that's where we're really focused initially in the United States, but will be at the correct time. Um,
Ramping that internationally as well, and the acquisitions and new businesses. We announced today in robotics both the on-site evaluation and withdrawal.
And owner asset management class.
Uh, we're going to be, uh, rolling that out both geographically and from a product diversification standpoint. Um, over time, it will definitely be unpacking that further at the Capital Markets Day in November.
Thank you.
Our next question is from Ben Kelo with Beard. Your line is now open.
Hey guys, thanks for taking my question. Uh, and good afternoon, just maybe. Uh, we talked a lot about safe Hall rates. But if if you could have any, if any color on, you know, uh, past the ITC expiration, any kind product development there in, uh, in, you know, it's a long ways away. But, you know, how you guys think about that, um, you know, if, uh, if how first agreements, uh, will respond in time, um, you know, to make projects go forward or pencil out and then, uh, just maybe another question that you, you, you talked a little bit about, but on the Robotics and AI Acquisitions is, do you think this is like an add-on to the customer wallet or should we think about it? Or maybe the question is how you price it is? It against costs, or is it a digital cost on top of a project? Thank you.
Thanks, Ben. This is Howard. So, on part 1.
Past the ITC. Look, let's just step back and take stock of our solar stance over the last 30, 40 years, right?
We first had to validate that it was reliable and technically sound. We've done that as an industry.
We then had to prove that it could economically compete.
We've done that.
To the point now where if you go to the Middle East,
Solar power is now $15 per megawatt hour, or 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour.
Okay, that's an unsubsidized market free market.
NextTracker was the first company to be in the Middle East. We have an office.
Just keep building with these acquisitions and our own internal organic efforts.
And so what you're seeing is that solar power, as Dan mentioned, is the fastest growing.
Most, uh, impactful new energy technology going in in the United States and around the world. If you look past the ITC, if we're on a level playing field.
The industry can compete when you add storage to the equation.
It's really an unbeatable firm. Power, dispatchable power combination.
Um, so we feel, you know, in our engagement with very large owner-developers.
Who their, their, their companies and their investors are pouring billions of dollars into them. Why?
Because they have a durable value proposition that can compete to provide energy to the fast-growing electricity markets.
In the U.S., they just needed a bridge.
And so we're in the middle of that bridge right now. We think we're in good stead with the OBB; we're going to get more guidelines. But beyond that.
We're durable, and it's unstoppable, and we feel really good about it.
And that's from an industry and company perspective for solar power.
Okay, AI and pricing.
So, right now, the way we're thinking about, especially when you think about on-site, who's out in the market and has robots and customers in 7 states.
In a couple dozen sites, it's real technology being deployed and being paid for. It's done what we're migrating towards is more of a robot as a service model.
Where there's recurring Revenue.
For those services, and it's in addition to the services that we provide today.
But it's part of our whole platform development and constellation. Dan talked about Tracker, which is core, and we're investing a lot in Tracker.
We've tripled our R&D spend in the last three years, a lot of that going to our core tracker technology.
And then we're building around that with these additional acquisitions, including the robotics.
Thanks Beth.
Thanks guys. Appreciate it.
Our next question is from Dylan. Asano with wolf research, your line is now open.
Hey, good afternoon. Um,
Just on backlog. Can you give us an update on how much of the current backlog you expect to ship over? Call it the coming six days, quarters? I think that's a metric you've shared before. And then, a quick follow-up. Uh, on Bentek, when you're talking about building out the IGBOS capacity, are you looking to actually expand the current product offering beyond the products you currently make to potentially compete more directly with some of the leading EVOS players? Thank you.
Yeah, uh, Jill, on this, it's Chuck. Um, it really hasn't changed much, you know. It was a metric we used to publish; we stopped because it kind of was the same each quarter. Call it, you know, high 80s, low 90s would be shipped over the next 8ish quarters. Not much movement there, and we stopped disclosing that because it just wasn't that meaningful.
And the second question on bench products, uh, will have the power to answer that. Okay, we offer two product lines. Through Bentex, they cover 100% of the use cases currently in the solar industry. And, uh, one is based on the combiner box approach and one's based on a truck plus approach with, uh, load break disconnects.
And so we are, uh, one of the reasons why we really like Bentek is that they have a robust product development effort. They have, uh, new products in their pipeline. We're helping them bring those to the market, and, uh, we expect to be adding to the products point A to what is offered today.
And point B, we're working with them to scale so that we can better match the volume that Extractor has. We have an incredible footprint.
Uh, in the US, and then first the US, and then the rest of the world. So, there's a lot of what we, you know, see as upside to the EBoS business for an extractor.
Thanks Dylan. Great. Thank you.
Meet your line; it is open.
Hi. Um thanks for taking my question. Uh just wanted to ask you um maybe pivoting away from the executive order but um, on Section the section, 232 tariff investigation. I was just wondering what sort of kind of feedback you've got from your uh, your customers on that. And kind of giving your ability to kind of maybe work with a greater array of different solar modules, uh that might be better positioned to kind of respond to that. Have you seen kind of any um kind of additional interest as a result of that? Thank you.
Yeah, thanks. And, uh, we're flexible to work with a wide range of solar panels. Um,
The next tracker has spent a lot of, um,
you know, contributing a lot to
making these panels.
Compatible with our tracker. If you actually pulled the specifications of solar panels, you'll see that.
Almost every panel has a 400-millimeter hole in the frame.
That came from the Nextracker tracker about 12 years ago.
Thirteen years ago, and so we have a very strong.
Um, product management functions that closely coordinate with their counterparts. At these modular companies,
Uh, it's great to see the growth in the solar panel manufacturing industry here in the United States. There are over 30 companies that have actually made and shipped solar panels in the U.S., which is kind of staggering, uh, from where it was 5 years ago. So, we're very excited to see that and to see the expansion of both legacy players and new players. Uh, so we're very excited about that tech growth. Thank you, and me.
Thank you.
Our next question is from Joseph, OSHA with Google, and your line is now open.
Uh, thank you very much. I have two questions for you. First, looking at Bentek, I'm wondering if we might see you start to use that platform to do completely custom harnesses without insulation piercing connectors. What might be the thought there? And then, secondly, looking at some of these acquisitions you've just completed, you know we do see some companies out there, like Caribbean.
In case you’re really seeking to sort of automate the whole assembly process and all of that, I kind of sense that you’re maybe moving in that direction with these acquisitions that you’re making. Thank you.
Okay. I'll do Part A, and Dan will do Part B. This is Howard. So for Bentek,
We're not, uh, as I mentioned before, we're able to provide, uh, both.
Platforms that are predominantly used in the U.S. large-scale solar industry.
For wiring.
Uh, systems.
And we're not at this time prepared to talk about some of the development that we're doing, including the area that you discussed, which is on the custom harnesses. But thank you. Thank you for the question. You want to talk about? Thank you. Yeah. So you asked about Carebase, which is a great company that has a, um,
Uh, sort of field factory assembly, installation process.
Uh, we're supporting terabase 100%.
with um,
Everything we can do to help them.
There's also another dozen companies working in the UM field—factory or installation or automation for installation—and we're supporting.
Pretty much how all the above, uh, folks that are coming and asking how, you know, for specific things to facilitate field factory installation to make labor more efficient and safer. We think all of that's good. We think it's a hard problem; there are multiple ways to approach it. And so we are supporting, um,
All the leaders that we're engaged with in that particular activity, and we think that's the right approach. There's been a lot of progress and a lot of opportunity for future projects.
Validate.
That supports the EPC to validate installation quality, identify deviations to support DPC more efficiently. Um, uh, punch list signs.
We're doing it to then create a digital 3D map of the job site that supports.
Adaptive tracking. We think what we're doing is unique in this area, and our True Capture really delivers the results that align with our expectations we're creating.
we're uh, have unique, um,
unique.
Robotic technology. We've acquired
With a mere focus on robotics for cleaning, Nextracker was an early mover in robotic cleaning technologies. For the last seven years, we've been supporting our customers in the Middle East to empirically evaluate how robotic cleaning technologies have worked. We have worked with a number of companies, we understand the technology, and we've really leaned in, which has improved yield gains. Additionally, with the acquisition of On-Site Technologies, we are supporting higher efficiency.
durability and reliability of the solar power assets by inspecting things like the connectors and electrical valve system and then providing feedback on and also reducing risk on where these are going. But I can pull back for a second and just talk about.
Where these, why we did these robotic cleaning, uh, or excuse me, robotic category acquisitions, it was really customer-driven. A lot, as is a lot of our technology. We actually didn't really believe in robotic cleaning if you went back 10 years ago. We didn't think it was very cost-effective.
But we saw our customers in areas that are very dry and that uh, has high dust storms. Really showed us the need, uh, you can have a, a major dust storm and uh, see, uh, a rape performance, degrade significantly. In a short amount of time, we saw the need for a robotic cleaning. And so, uh, similarly, uh, and and we really then worked to find who are the best teams in these areas.
The Emir robotics team is incredible. Legacy and robotic cleaning are fantastic. We have domain expertise, and we really focus on the key team, similarly with on-site.
Uh, technologies. Uh, the team there really came from operations and maintenance of solar power. They have specific domain expertise, and we just love how the team was thinking about it. It wasn't a robot in search of a solution. What they came up with was a need that was solved by a robotic technology that significantly lowered the cost, improved reliability, and reduced risk on the job site. So these are our values, and Nextracker’s customer demand drives how we come up with solutions to lower the level of cost of energy and improve durable systems. With that, I conclude our call today. Thank you all very much. Uh, as Howard mentioned, big picture, we are very excited about our progress. We're off to an amazing start in Q1 and look forward to welcoming you all at our Capital Markets Day in November.
That includes the conference call. Thank you for your participation. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Bye.