A solar project in Navarro County, Texas, is shifting to an automated platform to accelerate the completion of its 457 MW renewable energy project.The system, Terafab V2, behaves like a small, portable modular robotic factory that helps with on-site assembly and installation of solar modules. Interestingly, the system also oversees the management and planning of the entire project.U.S.-based Terabase Energy describes its upgraded system, launched this April, as a modular “factory” that assembles solar components for quality checks and site placement.Once installed, these systems can assemble one unit in about 2 minutes when operating continuously, the company claimed. At this rate, it can achieve 20 MW production output in a week’s time, it added.Matrix Renewables, a Spanish company, is behind this recent commercial deployment at the Tormes Solar project in the Southern state. These upgraded automated solar construction platforms have been field-tested and are currently optimized for First Solar Series 7 modules and Nextpower trackers.Switch to automated production lineMuch of the work in solar fields is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and incurs huge costs for transporting the bulky raw materials. To tackle these challenges, the Terabase Energy has created a temporary production line on the farm and automated it.Before the portable robotic assembly begins, solar panels and metal hardware like tracker torque tubes, frames, brackets, and mounts are delivered to the farm.The system’s robots fasten the photovoltaic modules onto long rotating steel tubes, called tracker torque tubes — steel frames that allow solar panels to track the sun.Once the automated system has completed assembly of the finished units, it uses AI-assisted tools to perform quality checks, confirming everything is correctly placed. After this, the automated vehicles called rovers carry the assembled units across the solar farm for the final installation. At last, workers in the field remove the assembled solar panels before placing them onto tracker supports that are already fixed in the ground.Quick setup, easy relocationThese modular and portable robotic systems can be set up in approximately four hours, which means it can be deployed quickly and also relocated easily to move across the solar farm as construction advances.Multiple such assembly line modules can be created on a single project and increase the production capacity, Terabase Energy highlighted.Apart from the rapid deployment and relocation benefits of assembly line production units, Terabase’s platform combines automation hardware with software.Rather than simply deploying robots, the platform combines planning, material tracking, and logistics software with a digital replica of the construction site. This allows the managers to monitor and coordinate the project more effectively.The company expects to speed up the construction of solar projects by integrating robotic systems at different stages. Compared with conventional utility-scale PV installation methods, adopting its automated construction approach can double labor productivity, the company claimed. However, the actual output, it added, depends on project configuration, equipment utilization and site conditions.Terabase said the first-generation Terafab platform, available since 2022, has been used to install about 40 MW of tracker-mounted solar capacity across several U.S. projects, including in Arizona and Texas.Moving forward, the company aims to expand the system’s compatibility with other module and tracker technologies. It is also working on developing additional robots to automate the final installation step that still requires workers.