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Blinded by the Light: Operational Risks of Solar Trackers on Cash Flow

Over the past decade, the solar tracker market has grown significantly because of improved reliability and significant cost reduction. Large utility-scale systems in North America usually take one to three years to pay back the additional upfront costs to add a solar tracker system. While the need for a shorter payback period is primarily due to the additional upfront costs, the operational risks of solar trackers are often overlooked and could extend the anticipated payback period. The lack of due diligence often translates into little to no distinction of O&M costs and system availability assumptions between different tracker designs in the projects' financial models. This commentary examines operational risks and associated availability considerations for solar tracker systems including: (1) the ease of maintenance and associated costs, (2) reliability during normal operation, and (3) reliability during extreme weather events. With trackers becoming more common, it is important to be mindful of these risks. Aggressive assumptions of these factors can result in an overly optimistic forecast of cash flows.