NX Navigator™ monitoring and control software for utility-scale solar plants has been chosen for innovation award in mitigating risk in extreme weather
New York, May 4, 2021 — Nextracker, a Flex company, announced it has earned the Fast Company Award for Established Excellence which is given to companies that have achieved incredible impact and have been in business between 5 and 14 years. The Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards honor the businesses, policies, projects, and concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to pursuing innovation when it comes to solving health and climate crises, social injustice, or economic inequality. Read the full feature, here.
In 2020 in the United States, we have experienced one of the worst extreme weather seasons on record; there have been over 30 extreme weather events, which created over $10 billion dollars in loses, according to NOAA. Additionally, last October, renewable insurer MGA GCube faced $70-80 million in losses after hail damaged over 400,000 panels on a single solar farm in West Texas. Nextracker launched NX Navigator™ in January 2020 as a direct solution to this problem. Since the launch, dozens of utility-scale solar plants have implemented this future-proof control and monitoring software.
“We are honored to win the Fast Company Award for Established Excellence for our NX Navigator™ future-proofing software,” said Dan Shugar, Nextracker CEO. “With solar accounting for the largest share of new energy generation in countries world-wide, NX Navigator paired with Nextracker’s NX Horizon smart solar tracker helps support power plant resiliency that our energy sector needs with increasing extreme weather events.”
“There is no question our society and planet are facing deeply troubling times. So, it’s important to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, impact, design, scalability, and passion to solve these problems,” says Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Our journalists, under the leadership of senior editor Morgan Clendaniel, have discovered some of the most groundbreaking projects that have launched since the start of 2020.”
NX Navigator™ is a future-proofed, smart solar software technology that controls and monitors large solar power plants with granularity. Driven by advanced software and increasing extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, hail, wind and snow, NX Navigator helps to mitigate costly solar power plant damage. See the editorial from Fast Company here on the software.
As states continue to set ambitious renewable energy targets and utilities aim to provide access to affordable, clean energy – it is imperative that solar power plants are protected from extreme weather events. Not only can extreme weather be costly to operators and owners, but they can also hinder mass global energy production and cause major disruptions in service and blackouts. When a massive hailstorm comes up fast on a plant in West Texas, for example, the panels need a smart option to put themselves in an effective “stow” mode that protects them from damage. It is future-ready and has a simple, intuitive user interface allowing plant managers to optimize the power plant for their unique conditions and significantly cut operations and maintenance costs.
According to Lloyd Warwick International, a loss adjusting and claim management company serving the global insurance business, storm and hail damage accounts for only 12% of occurrences, but 80% of the claim values. Since insurance premiums have become so high for renewable energy assets, NX Navigator is able to help protect trackers and decrease financial loss.
For more information on NX Navigator, see this Greentech Media webinar and technical white paper series Part I and Part II on mitigating extreme weather risk on utility-scale solar power plants.
About the World Changing Ideas Awards: World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. Now in its fifth year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 33 winners selected by a panel of eminent Fast Company editors and reporters from a pool of more than 4,000 entries based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With the goals of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start working on solving the problems that affect us all.
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