Unirac has led the PV mounting market with a breadth of product solutions and services designed to meet the needs of any type of solar installation. Richard Welch, Vice President and COO of Unirac, talks about some challenges they’re dealing with in installing solar arrays and how they’re innovating for the future.
Reported by Stella Lee (pved1@infothe.com)
What are your main solutions and where can they be applied?
Unirac features solutions for residential, commercial and utility-scale solar installations. For the residential market, Unirac’s new SolarMount Evolution line is a comprehensive solution allowing for a variety of installation configurations, including flush mounting options. ISYS Ground Mount 2.0 is the most popular solution for both commercial and utility-scale solar installations. This highly versatile product is made with C-Beams for easy installation and reduced material costs. IGM 2.0 is optimized for projects over 500 kilowatts and can be custom-designed for each site and project. Unirac also offers the ISYS Single Axis Tracker for utility installations, which provides the lowest levelized cost of energy available for large installations.
Unirac’s ISYS product line is module-agnostic and can be pre-assembled, allowing for faster, easier installation in the field.
What strength can’t your competitors imitate?
Unirac is known for its commitment to performance engineering, which means two things:
First, nobody can touch our quality. Not only are all of Unirac’s products engineered by a leading team of innovative professionals, they are also tested to withstand the harshest possible conditions. Unirac focuses on building solar infrastructure solutions that meet or exceed even the most comprehensive codes and standards. We test for concurrent weather conditions (for example, not just snow, but wind and snow together). Unirac’s testing facility even features a wind tunnel on location to simulate the most extreme wind conditions. Every Unirac product is built to outlast competitive offerings. We feature warranties that last up to 20 years.
Second, we have a dedicated, world-class team of people on every job, shepherding the process from start to finish. A dedicated project management team works with every customer on every project.
Can you tell me about your innovations that are leading the field?
 At Unirac, our innovation on the product front takes into account things like designing our infrastructure solutions so that they can be assembled in parallel with work done in the field. This means that while customers are preparing the ground at an installation site, they can simultaneously be pre-assembling their system in another location. This enables the least amount of fieldwork and reduces overall labor expenses, something our customers really appreciate.
Unirac has also been working diligently over the past few years to further the industry by developing industry-wide codes and standards for solar infrastructure. Our focus on exemplary products that meet the highest standards of safety and performance makes us a fail-safe partner for even the largest solar projects.
What other companies do you partner with?
Over the past 12 years, Unirac has partnered with many of North America’s leading solar companies and installers. Each project brings with it unique requirements, and that may mean a variety of skilled collaborators. Recently, we have partnered with KG Solar, Kyocera and Wise Power Systems.
What’s the biggest current barrier to collaborating with installers and system integrators?
One of the biggest problems in installing solar arrays is the lack of codes and standards in solar infrastructure. While there are many codes in place for electrical components, there is no unilateral standard for solar infrastructure and individual project contractors often interpret information differently. This leaves room for dramatic miscalculations and potentially catastrophic system failures. The infrastructure of a solar installation is essential to the longevity of the project and it must perform well over the long term in order to maximize the ROI of a solar project. At Unirac, our strong commitment to advancing codes and standards and our relentless attention to detail on every project helps us (and our SI and installer partners) to not only meet, but exceed customer expectations.
Can you give us any thoughts or insights as to where you see the technology evolving in the near future?
At Unirac, we are constantly innovating to make our products stronger, lighter and faster to install. We continually work on making products that address customer needs as effectively as possible. We introduced three new products last fall and won’t be slowing down any time soon. You can expect that as the solar industry matures and evolves, Unirac will remain ahead of the curve with new innovations at every turn.
Stella Lee is Editor of InterPV. Send your comments to pved1@infothe.com.
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