Arctech, a solar tracking and building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) solutions provider, announced its first joint venture Jash Energy — a 3 GW solar tracker factory in India, which has begun trial operations.

The factory is spread across 16 acres of land in Mundra, Gujarat. The manufacturing base has all the major components of Arctech’s solar tracker productions, including posts, torque tubes, purlins, and fasteners produced from its fully automatic production lines.

With the new venture, Arctech said it aims to ease the pressure of ongoing supply chain constraints caused due to COVID lockdowns in China during the first half of 2022.

The CEO of Jash Energy, Gail Chen, said, “By applying the fully automatic production lines, we can stay agile and make fast adjustments to the current supply strategy. We can also increase productivity, stay competitive, and prepare for the future, including for unprecedented events, such as a pandemic. It also helps accelerate the adoption of India’s Industry 4.0 solutions.”

Since Jash Energy commenced operations, the factory has employed over 200 people from the local community. The venture also comprises technical training for the employees to help upscale their expertise in equipment handling.

The company said it would also deepen its vertically integrated production plan, including using steel for trackers made in India.

Arctech plans to work with local manufacturing partners to develop solar tracking systems. Tracker suppliers can gain a competitive advantage by developing innovative solutions to steel procurement, logistics, tracker design, and tracker installation, which can help lower PV systems costs.

Arctech entered the Indian market with its first project in 2015, and to date, the company has accumulated shipments of 3.9 GW across over 50 projects in the country.

Despite the global supply chain disruption caused by COVID-19, Arctech struck a deal with Adani Electricity Mumbai to supply 1.7 GW of 1P SkyLine trackers to two projects in Rajasthan in 2020.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Market Leaderboard 2022 report, Arctech rounded off the top five module mounting structure suppliers in 2021.

Arctech was the top supplier of solar trackers in 2021.