Nextpower Sees Solar, Storage Demand Powering Through Policy and Grid Challenges

Key Points

• Solar demand remains robust despite policy uncertainty, tariffs and financing challenges, supported by data centers, manufacturing growth and rising U.S. electricity demand. Nextpower reported a record $5.5 billion solar backlog plus more than $300 million in battery backlog.
• Energy storage is becoming central to solar development and grid reliability, with batteries helping absorb excess generation, ease grid constraints and support variable data-center demand. Industry executives said storage is now included in nearly every new solar plant.
• The biggest growth constraints are permitting, interconnection, labor and community opposition rather than equipment availability. Nextpower is expanding U.S. manufacturing and has established 35 domestic factories, while project approvals and grid connections can still take several years.

Solar industry executives said near-term demand remains strong despite policy uncertainty, tariffs and supply-chain adjustments, with data centers, manufacturing growth and energy-storage deployment expected to support continued investment in renewable generation.

Speaking at BNP Paribas’ Power Up conference, leaders from developers, an engineering and construction provider, and equipment supplier Nextpower NASDAQ: NXT described a market in which project backlogs remain substantial, though interconnection timelines, financing costs, labor availability and community acceptance remain meaningful constraints.

Backlogs and Demand Remain Strong

George Hershman, CEO of SOLV Energy, said the company’s approximately $8.5 billion backlog, representing roughly 24 to 30 months of project activity, continues to advance. SOLV provides engineering, procurement and construction services as well as operations and maintenance for solar and storage facilities.

“The near term, 24, 30 month outlook is really strong,” Hershman said, while acknowledging challenges such as adapting project designs and procurement plans to policy changes affecting equipment suppliers.

Yuri Horwitz, founder and CEO of Sol Systems, said the industry faces “significant opposition” from the administration but argued that this is less consequential over the long run than underlying electricity-demand growth. Horwitz cited estimates for U.S. power-demand growth of 12% to 19%, driven by data centers, reshoring of manufacturing and industrial expansion.

Sol Systems, an independent power producer primarily active in the Midwest, is constructing about 800 megawatts of projects, has approximately 3 gigawatts in its pipeline and operates more than 1 gigawatt of projects, Horwitz said.

Dan Shugar, founder and CEO of Nextpower, said the company reported record backlog and revenue in its most recent quarter. Nextpower’s backlog stood at $5.5 billion, plus more than $300 million in battery backlog, he said. The company has also acquired inverter and battery businesses as it expands beyond solar trackers.

Storage Seen as an Increasingly Central Component

Panelists repeatedly emphasized that battery energy storage is becoming more important to both solar deployment and grid reliability. Shugar said storage can absorb excess solar generation, support grids with constrained capacity and help serve highly variable demand from data centers.

Nextpower is currently fulfilling a 1.3-gigawatt battery application for a learning-center customer, Shugar said. He also pointed to the company’s acquisition of Prevalon Energy, now Nextpower Energy Storage, and described a 200-megawatt, 800-megawatt-hour battery system delivered to Idaho Power as an example of storage enabling additional industrial load on an existing grid.

Hershman said nearly every plant SOLV builds now includes storage, compared with years earlier when storage was rarely part of the discussion. He said batteries installed at substations and in urban areas could help utilities manage transmission constraints and change how the sector deploys solar over the next decade.

“If I sit here 10 years from now, I might say I am a storage-plus-solar business,” Hershman said.

Supply Is Not Viewed as the Primary Constraint

David Zwillinger, co-founder and CEO of DESRI, said he does not see medium-term equipment availability as a major obstacle, arguing that capital and manufacturing capacity will respond to demand. DESRI has about 10 gigawatts of projects operating or under construction, he said, and expects to raise about $10 billion in project financing this year.

Zwillinger said inflation in financing, commodity and labor costs has increased renewable-power pricing, but he maintained that renewables remain competitive against alternatives. He said developers must consider interest rates, equipment pricing, construction costs, risk and targeted returns when pricing power-purchase agreements.

Horwitz similarly said he is not concerned about the long-term availability of equipment, though he expects electricity prices to rise as the country addresses an aging grid and higher demand. He said solar paired with storage will compete with gas generation and other new resources.

Shugar said Nextpower and its partners have established 35 U.S. factories and achieved domestic-content qualification under Treasury standards. The company is also developing a double-digit-gigawatt inverter manufacturing facility in the United States that is expected to be operational next summer, he said.

Interconnection, Permitting and Labor Could Limit Growth

While executives expressed confidence in equipment supply, they cited project-development timelines as a larger challenge. Zwillinger said permitting can take two to four years and interconnection processes can take three to six years or longer. He said an expansion project in PJM that entered a fast-track process in 2019 is expected to come online in 2029.

“These just take time,” Zwillinger said, adding that rapid data-center construction timelines may be impractical in many markets outside Texas.

Hershman said project scale is driving consolidation among EPC providers, as smaller contractors may struggle to compete for larger projects. SOLV is investing in workforce training, automation and robotics, including autonomous pile driving and module installation, to improve productivity and mitigate cost pressure.

Horwitz also identified community opposition as a major constraint. He said developers need to build infrastructure in partnership with local communities, particularly as energy and data-center projects become larger and more visible.

On geography, Zwillinger said DESRI favors states with understandable permitting systems, demand for power and reasonable construction costs. He cited Minnesota as a constructive permitting environment, while saying ERCOT Texas is highly competitive because projects can be permitted and interconnected relatively quickly.

Despite the constraints, the panelists broadly agreed that solar and storage will remain central to meeting incremental U.S. electricity demand, particularly where they can be paired to provide both energy and capacity.

About Nextpower (NASDAQ:NXT)

Nextracker Inc NASDAQ: NXT is a solar technology company that designs, manufactures and supplies intelligent solar tracker systems for utility-scale and distributed-generation photovoltaic projects. Its tracker systems adjust the position of solar panels throughout the day to help optimize energy production.

The company's product portfolio includes single-axis solar tracking systems, associated hardware and controls, as well as software and digital tools used to monitor and manage solar plant performance.

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