Arcelormittal confirmed as buyer of Exosun

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One day after several media articles revealed ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest producer of steel, was interested in acquiring the insolvent French solar tracker manufacturer, Exosun, the company has announced in a press release it has been chosen as the preferred bidder by the Commercial Tribunal of Bordeaux, France.

Arcelormittal said that, through the acquisition, Exosun will now benefit from new industrial, commercial and R&D synergies, and that it will also rely on the group’s financial solidity in order to better serve its clients, which develop large-scale solar projects.

“Thanks to the acquisition of Exosun’s assets, we will provide our customers with the industrial expertise and guarantees they expect to carry out their projects and contribute even more to the energy transition,” said the steel maker’s CEO Johannes De Schrivjer. He added that ArcelorMittal’s offering in the field of solar energy will also gain a new dimension.

De Schrivjer also said he believes the tracker market, which currently represents 25% of the global market of large-scale PV, may increase its share to 50% by 2020.

Other predictions for tracker usage for utility scale solar have been more bullish. Both GTM Research and IHS have both published forecasts that point to tracking be used in upwards of 70% of PV power plants globally by 2020. This is due to both the maturity of the technology, and confidence in it from developers, but also because of solar’s growth in parts of the world with high levels of irradiation such as those in the sunbelt.

In Australia, upwards of 90% of the large scale projects currently being developed with trackers. Exosun claims to have supplied trackers to projects in five continents, including Australia.

According to Arcelormittal, which is already active in the solar energy business through the manufacturing of mounting structures and the development of utility-scale solar plants, Exosun has so far delivered its trackers to around 700 MW of PV projects worldwide.

The company provides horizontal single-axis solar trackers, based on a centralised actuator architecture, for ground-mounted PV plants.

Article edited by Jonathan Gifford. 

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