Terabase Energy has successfully completed its first commercial solar installation using Terafab, its automatic solar-installing robot.

Solar-installing robot

The Terafab robot – aka the “construction automation platform” – installed 17 megawatts (MW) of the 225 MW White Wing Ranch project in Yuma County, Arizona, on which solar tech company Terabase Energy is working alongside developer Leeward Renewable Energy (LRE) and contractor RES.

The Terafab robot completely eliminates the manual lifting of heavy steel tubes and solar panels – an industry first. Terabase Energy says that its robot achieved labor productivity improvements of 25% compared with manual installation, and the setup improves working conditions for solar technicians, as they’re housed in shaded and cooled conditions. The robot’s precision also enables the 100% return of solar panel packaging for reuse by the manufacturer.

Terabase Energy says that the success of its robot’s first commercial installation demonstrates the “synergy of automation, Internet of Things (IoT), a digital twin, and data analytics to improve solar construction management on a remote site with difficult environmental conditions.”

Check out the robot in action below:

Electrek’s Take

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) is calling for workforce development because it says the US solar and storage industries will need 800,000 new workers by 2030 to keep up with the pace of growth. A potential worker shortage is a real possibility. So Terabase Energy’s robot isn’t a threat to jobs; it improves the working conditions for existing solar workers in the field.

Read more: GAF Energy’s new Texas factory is about to make a lot of nailable solar shingles

Photo and video: Terabase Energy

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