Scaling Clean: Nextracker and Doral CEOs on Building Mammoth, America’s Largest Solar Project

From Indiana Steel to Agrivoltaics: Dan Shugar and Nick Cohen talk Jobs, Property Rights, and the Future of U.S. Solar

This episode of Scaling Clean is a first on two fronts: we interviewed not one but two guests, and captured the entire conversation on video. Host Melissa Baldwin sat down with Dan Shugar, founder and CEO of Nextracker, and Nick Cohen, CEO of Doral Renewables, to discuss Mammoth Solar, the largest solar project in the United States and a milestone for clean energy development in Indiana.

The Story of Mammoth Solar

Mammoth Solar takes its name from a woolly mammoth whose bones were discovered in the same field where the project was built. Today, that fossil rests in the Smithsonian, while the solar project represents a different kind of legacy: one that connects energy, agriculture, and local communities.

Dan and Nick emphasized the importance of working directly with landowners, integrating agrivoltaics, and strengthening U.S. steel manufacturing to maximize the project’s long-term success.

Localizing Supply Chains (6:43)

As Dan explained, before COVID, much of the steel for solar trackers came from overseas. When the pandemic hit, steel prices doubled, shipping costs tripled, and delays mounted. In response, Nextracker shifted to domestic steel, now working with three of the four largest U.S. mills. With Indiana producing 25% of America’s steel, Mammoth Solar became the ideal project to showcase this localized supply chain, anticipating the goals of both the Build Back Better Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.

Creating Jobs and Supporting Farmers (10:20)

Nick shared that more than 1,200 local workers are employed in building Mammoth, earning high-wage jobs while helping the region transition to clean energy. The project also demonstrates the promise of agrivoltaics: farms continue producing crops, while vegetation is managed by thousands of sheep and even Kunekune pigs. Globally, agrivoltaics could expand to crops as varied as avocados, offering new revenue streams for farmers.

Protecting Property Rights (28:43)

Both CEOs voiced concern about the growing anti-renewables movement. In many communities, zoning boards are attempting to restrict how farmers use their land. As Nick warned, this trend threatens private property rights nationwide. Protecting the freedom of landowners to choose renewable energy development is essential to scaling clean power in America.

Why It Matters

Mammoth Solar is more than a record-breaking project. It’s a model for how clean energy, local jobs, and community trust can work together to fuel prosperity in the heart of the Midwest.

Watch the full video episode here: 

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Overview

• Introduction
  
• How Dan Shugar and Nick Cohen First Connected – and Why Their Partnership Worked
  
• The Story Behind the Name “Mammoth”
  
• From Midwestern Steel to Agrivoltaics: How Solar Creates a Circular Local Economy
  
• Agrivoltaics in Action: Bringing Food, Livestock, and Flexibility to Solar Farms
  
• From Construction Crews to High-Tech Roles: How Solar Jobs Are Evolving
  
• Why Dual-Use Solar + Farming Moves the Needle in Rural Communities
  
• A Message to Policymakers: Support Local Energy, Protect Landowner Rights
  
• Advice to Developers: Get Your Shoes Dirty or Don’t Try
  
• How Execution-Driven Culture and Community Focus Enable Scale in Clean Energy
  
• Success: What You Choose to Do vs. What You Choose Not to Do
  
• Closing Thoughts: Solar Is the New Industrial Revolution

Introduction

Melissa Baldwin:

This is a special episode of Scaling Clean. We’ve had repeat guests on the show before, but we’ve never done a joint interview. I’m pleased to have two incredible CEOs joining me today.

Dan Shugar is the CEO of Nextracker, the leading global solar tracking company for 10 years running. Nextracker IPO’d in 2023, and in the last year, they’ve announced new products and technology, expanding the company’s platform beyond solar trackers.

Nick Cohen is the CEO of Doral Renewables, a developer with 17 gigawatts of projects across 22 states. Doral is the renewable energy developer behind America’s biggest solar project, Mammoth.

There’s a reason why it’s called that, and I’ll let my guests tell you more. Doral uses what they call a farmer-friendly approach to energy development, and we’ll be talking more about that in the show as well.

We brought the two of them on the show to lead a conversation around supply chain and domestic manufacturing.

Nick and Dan, welcome to the show. Thanks for being here.

How Dan Shugar and Nick Cohen First Connected – and Why Their Partnership Worked

Melissa Baldwin:

So first, I want to get started with the two of you working together. You’re both CEOs at large, well-respected companies. How did you two first meet? Is there a story there?

Nick Cohen:

Well, I have friends that brought us together. The reason people identified us as a strong fit is not only because of our business outlook, but also because of shared personalities and philosophies. Dan values relationships – with his own people, those he’s worked with in the past, and his customers. That is a core value for us as well, and a personal philosophy of mine. I think we were a natural match.

Dan Shugar:

Yeah, I really appreciate that, Nick. And I have to tell you, well, I have told you this, but I’ll share it with the folks listening to this podcast. You gave us the opportunity to participate in your groundbreaking ceremony and the ceremony for commercial operation of your huge Mammoth project in Indiana. And I’ve never seen that level of proactive engagement with the community. It was very moving and wonderful to participate in that. It also really exemplified the kind of company you are. It inspired us, and I’m appreciative to be supporting you and your great EPC partners on that particular project.

Communities are understandably sensitive when solar projects come into their areas because they’re concerned that their way of life continues, and that there’s value for the community. What you’ve done on the ground there in Indiana, where you had so much participation from the farming community and the rural development community, both at the local and the state level, really became a win-win-win for Doral, for your landowners, and for your partners like your EPCs and Nextracker. So thank you for that, and for the opportunity to get to know you better through this process.

Nick Cohen:

Thanks, Dan. It was easy working with you because you’re very grounded in the realities facing people on the ground. Your technology makes our projects better. Even more importantly, Melissa, your audience may find this interesting, and you may have questions about it later. Dan and his team have connected us with incredible manufacturing partners in the Midwest.

We have more steel in our project than the Empire State Building. Dan’s company is procuring that steel and working with the Indiana workforce, Indiana-based manufacturers, and other Midwestern partners to produce it. When people think of sunshine, butterflies, and solar, there’s a lot more to it. There’s steel, jobs, and manufacturing – an entire industry cluster. 

The Story Behind the Name "Mammoth"

Melissa Baldwin:

You got right to one of my questions, which I wanted to hear more about, the supply chain. But before we go there, can you tell us quickly, for our listeners who don’t know, why is Mammoth called Mammoth?

Nick Cohen:

You’d think it’s just a great name for the biggest project in America, but here’s how it started. It began with one farmer in a field who told me that, in the next field, they found a woolly mammoth. That farmer said, “You should name it Mammoth.”

Little did I know, every farmer we spoke with said, “Yes, I want to be part of this project.” And then it literally became a mammoth project. Some of the farmers went to the Smithsonian in Washington, and they sent us a picture of themselves standing next to the actual mammoth from that field. The display read “Pulaski County, Indiana”, and it’s now housed at the Smithsonian.

Melissa Baldwin:

The bones from those fields are in the Smithsonian?

Nick Cohen:

Yes, a fully assembled mammoth, which, from what I understand, is quite rare. There it is, standing on display. That’s what we’re named after – the actual mammoth. Anyone can go to Washington and see it if they want to.

Melissa Baldwin
Nice. 

From Midwestern Steel to Agrivoltaics: How Solar Creates a Circular Local Economy

Melissa Baldwin:

My next question is on supply chain. You started to touch on this a bit, Nick, but I’d like to hear more about what you’ve done with the supply chain in Indiana with Mammoth. Specifically, the term “circular economy” gets used a lot, and I’d like to hear what it means in your words.

Nick Cohen:

Well, when you’re talking about the amount of steel that Dan’s company brought in, and other resources, I think he’s the right guy to kick this question off.

Dan Shugar:

Yeah, my pleasure. Let me share the backstory on how this came to be.

We’ve been the number one tracker and structure company globally for the last 10 years, and the number one company in the United States. Up until about five years ago, our customers were very focused on the lowest delivered cost of product, and most of that supply was coming from overseas.

Then, during the early part of the pandemic, global supply chains really melted down. Things changed dramatically. Before that, you could count on global logistics to move a container almost anywhere in the world for about $2,500 to $3,000, with good delivery times. During the pandemic, that completely changed. Steel prices doubled in just over a quarter, logistics prices tripled, and lead times stretched from a month to two or three months – sometimes with no clear timeline at all.

We saw a lot of factors driving this: natural disasters, wars, issues with the Panama Canal, issues with the Suez Canal, and more. At that point in our company’s growth, we said, we’re not going to keep operating this way. In major markets like the United States, we decided to massively build out domestic supply chains. We did the same thing in other markets as well, including India. And this was all before Build Back Better and the IRA legislation came into play.

Since then, we’ve completed dozens of factories across the U.S. to fabricate our tracker parts, and we partnered with three of the four largest steel mills in the country to go mill-direct for U.S. steel. Indiana, as Nick mentioned, produces about 25% of all U.S. steel, so it was a natural place for us to really lean in.

In that region, we worked closely with major mills to source steel locally, fabricate it locally, and deliver it directly to job sites. There were a lot of benefits. Yes, U.S. steel is more expensive, but you save significantly on logistics, you save time, and you’re able to support EPCs with reliable, on-time delivery.

One thing we didn’t fully appreciate at first was how much cleaner U.S. steel is compared to overseas steel. It has an order of magnitude lower carbon dioxide emissions per ton at the mill. We were also able to locate tracker fabrication directly on or very near, mill campuses.

When you put all of that together, it created a delivery process that was more efficient, more predictable, supported build schedules, supported EPCs, and ultimately delivered a much cleaner U.S. steel product.

Nick Cohen:

And then, to complete the circle, the power is being sold to Indiana utilities and companies, and it’s being used to benefit people across the Midwest. Every single day, we have about 1,200 local people out there working at high wages to put this project together. So it’s an incredible economic opportunity for the local economy.

And the final thing you might not think about, but that really rings true, is that we’re bringing sustainable food practices back to small farms. There was a time in America when small farms cultivated food. Today, many of them are struggling, and a lot are stuck growing soybeans and corn, which is a very difficult commodity business, especially if you don’t have scale.

We’ve introduced agrivoltaics into all of our projects. What that means is that farmers can cultivate food – whether it’s grazing or crops – in and around the solar farm. When you look at a solar farm, there’s actually more green than there is glass. There’s a lot of space between the rows, around the rows, and along the margins, both inside and outside the fence.

From a vegetation management perspective, we can take a different approach. Instead of just mowing grass and paying for that, we can pay farmers to cultivate food. They can be more competitive because they’re receiving vegetation management payments from us that would otherwise go toward mowing. That creates a full-circle economy. We’re back to the way people remember, when their farms had food, thanks to the solar project.

Agrivoltaics in Action: Bringing Food, Livestock, and Flexibility to Solar Farms

Melissa Baldwin:

I’m curious, Nick, what kind of food can be grown on and around the solar projects?

Nick Cohen:

We’ve had a lot of success with sheep and pork. We have about 3,000 sheep grazing right now, and the herd is moving toward about 9,000 by the end of next year. We also have hundreds of pigs. They’re called kune kune pigs, and they’re free-grazing. They’re a little different from typical pigs because they don’t root, which is important – you want the grass to grow back.

In fact, we recently hosted a barbecue with elected officials and a couple hundred local people, and everything served was grown in and around the solar field. We had popcorn, different vegetables, and all kinds of meat – pork and sheep, or lamb. Local restaurants prepared the food.

This is new and exciting, and communities really relate to it. That’s part of the relationship aspect I mentioned earlier. We need to connect with farmers, and we don’t want to fake it – it has to be real. You can’t just shake someone’s hand, smile, tell them they’re great, and then see them again six months or a year later. You have to do something.

In this case, we’re changing lives. We’re trying to reclaim the character of the community through our solar projects, and it’s working.

Dan Shugar:

Yeah, and just to add to what Nick was saying, Melissa, the nice thing is that any income generated for farmers from this activity, which is essentially dual-use, as Nick mentioned, also supports vegetation management of the solar field, while nourishing livestock and supporting ranching in this application. Those income streams are decoupled from the commodity volatility that farmers usually face when they’re just growing and selling into the market. So it becomes a really nice dual-income stream for the community. It’s amazing to be part of that.

Taking a broader view, Nextracker is a global company. We’re partnering with Doral in the Middle East. We’re working with other companies in Europe and Latin America. The flexibility of solar is that you can put it close to the ground, you can put it above the ground, you can space it fairly close together, or you can move it farther apart. You can tailor the solar to whatever is already happening on the site.

For example, if they’re growing cotton on the site, there are over 90 million acres of cotton being cultivated in the United States now. You could have the solar trackers farther apart. If they want to graze more disruptive animals like cattle, you could raise the panels above the ground, and so forth. There’s a lot of flexibility in how to configure the systems.

What we’ve been doing is working with Doral on this Mammoth project, and also with the Doral engineers, to really fine-tune agrivoltaics, how the panels follow the sun, and co-optimize both for energy production and crop generation in other markets.

From Construction Crews to High-Tech Roles: How Solar Jobs Are Evolving

Melissa Baldwin:

Okay, I want to ask a follow-up question to Nick. When you were talking about the project, you mentioned 1,200 people have jobs. Can you tell me what kinds of jobs you’re creating with these projects?

Nick Cohen:

Sure. The types of jobs the 1,200 people are doing are typical construction jobs. There’s a lot of digging. There’s a lot of electrical work. These are advanced operator-type jobs. Right now, it’s unionized work. So there’s a lot of skilled work taking place.

There’s also an apprenticeship program. So it’s giving a lot of young people the opportunity to learn the trade. That’s something we believe will benefit them long term. And as we continue to build more projects – and believe me, there are plenty more coming – we’re going to need those people to work on our projects.

Melissa Baldwin:

I want to ask one more follow-up question, Dan. You mentioned that you’re working with Doral in the U.S., but also in the Middle East. I’m curious how you’re working together to make those projects different based on local conditions, like soil or the broader economy.

Do you have any specific examples of how a project in the U.S., for example, in Indiana, might differ from one you’re working on elsewhere?

Dan Shugar:

Yeah, so some of the international projects we’re working on with Doral involve things like small avocado trees and crops like that. So we’re working on massively elevated solar trackers that optimize the angle for both energy production and the light that reaches the crops below.

There’s a tremendous amount of flexibility in the operation of these systems. You need to bring agri-science into the algorithms used to control the solar panels, and how much light falls on the crops versus what falls on the panels. You can use things like infrared monitoring to measure the temperature of the crops, and things like that. So we’re still learning. It’s early days in agrivoltaics.

What I’m excited about is that this topic has been framed as solar versus agricultural land. We see it as agricultural land and solar together helping each other out, where one plus one equals much more than two. You can configure the solar so that, for example, only a quarter of the land is covered by panels. Even then, you can still grow under the panels to a certain extent, and the systems actually help each other.

You have a dual income stream for the agricultural community. You have a lower-cost, more efficient way to do vegetation management. And when you’re cultivating crops and livestock, the system has less dust. There’s less dust on the solar panels. You can integrate irrigation for both cleaning the panels and irrigating the crops, and keeping the field cooler, which benefits electricity production.

So it’s still early days. We’re working with Doral on the applications for their projects. We also have a bunch of control test facilities at Nextracker. We have one in Silicon Valley in the U.S. We have one in Brazil. We have a team of people, and we’re measuring crop yield and related data. So it’s early days, and we think this is a great win-win to bring value to owners of solar power plants, as well as to rural communities across the world.

Nick Cohen:

Dan gave away some of our secret sauce, which is that there’s a lot of investment going on between our companies in science and R&D. I think that’s giving us a more effective and predictable outcome, so it’s really exciting stuff.

Also, Melissa, you asked me about the 1,200 jobs, and I have to tell you about a couple of my favorite ones. Believe it or not, there’s quite a bit of AI going on right now. We have what I would call AI operators, along with drone operators, whose job is to control inputs. Often those inputs come from drones, but there are other tools as well that monitor everything that’s happening.

For example, if one post is put in two inches off-center from where it should be, we can detect it. We have people who operate the AI to detect these things. When you can imagine hundreds of thousands of steel piles going into the ground, you don’t want to be off. The old way of doing it was people walking around with tape measures. Then it evolved to GPS units. Today, you have drones in the sky measuring, observing, and doing all these things. There are people who are experts in operating the drones and the software.

Another job is robot operator. We have an army of robots. Our contractor has robots that do different tasks. Last time I was out there, robots were measuring exactly where the hundreds of thousands of piles go. They look like little R2-D2s. I mean, literally, maybe a little smaller. They’re on tracks, and there are armies of them out there. They have little flags, and they just do their job and put the flags in.

Then there are human operators with special machines that put the piles in. The next thing will be AI pile drivers.

Melissa Baldwin:

My son is in eighth-grade robotics, and he didn’t like his teacher at first. But I literally told him on one of the first days, “Look, son, I work with companies that do this, so there’s really a future in it.”

Nick Cohen:

We have school groups out there all the time, and it’s a wonderful school trip. You can focus on science and math and all sorts of different subject matters. The kids can get out there, get their hands on it, and really see how something on a piece of paper that doesn’t seem important in the classroom actually matters out in the field.

I know we’re helping inspire a lot of young scientists – girls and boys – in Indiana right now because of the Mammoth project we’re talking about. And we’re doing the same thing in other places, like Ohio. I just know every class that goes there, we turn somebody into a scientist. 

Why Dual-Use Solar + Farming Moves the Needle in Rural Communities

Melissa Baldwin:

That’s great. And I want to point to another thing I heard you say. You talked about how you’re investing in agri-science and agri-PV. I have to tell you, at Tigercomm, we’ve done research looking at rural communities and measuring opinions.

One of the things we’ve found – especially as it’s getting harder and harder to build – is that we tested a variety of messages. And while there are no magic words, what moved the needle the most was helping people understand that you can have dual use. You can have both farming and solar together. One doesn’t necessarily replace the other.

So I think it’s really smart for both of you to be demonstrating new ways for farmers to continue farming the land while also gaining this additional source of revenue.

A Message to Policymakers: Support Local Energy, Protect Landowner Rights

Melissa Baldwin:

We talked about the value of dual use. I wonder, what do you think about policymakers in that region? If you could create a 30-second commercial for local lawmakers, regional, state-level, county-level, what would you tell them? What do you want them to know about what you’re doing?

Nick Cohen:

The first thing I would say is that they’re doing a great job, because our elected officials, all the way from the governor down to local officials, have been incredibly supportive. It’s a pro-business working environment, and they’re promoting anyone who wants to invest in rural communities in Indiana. So they’re doing a great job.

I would remind them that we’re using Midwestern steel, and we’re providing electrons to people who live in their constituency. We’re building on Indiana’s, or the Midwest’s for that matter, competitive advantage. This is one of the biggest competitive advantages that has come to rural America in decades, and it’s not going to be here forever.

Everyone is going to be buying their power or importing power from other states. So I would say, do everything you can to assure the success of all forms of energy coming to your state and investing, because this is the new industrial revolution with data centers and the electrification of the economy. Don’t miss out. This is your one shot to bring prosperity to rural America and outcompete your neighboring states.

Dan Shugar:

Yeah, and I would build on Nick’s comments, Melissa. The United States has really become a manufacturing powerhouse for clean energy. Nick brought up the incredible work we, and some of our peer companies, have done using steel made in the U.S. for our tracker parts, and sourcing hundreds of thousands of tons of steel a year mill-direct in the U.S.

But the same thing is true for other components, like solar panels. The largest supplier of panels in the U.S. is a U.S. company that makes panels in three different factories. Today, there are over 30 factories making solar panels in the U.S. at scale and delivering to projects. So it’s become a tremendous source not only of construction jobs, but also ongoing manufacturing jobs throughout the value chain.

Additionally, what’s been really exciting is how battery systems have become very cost-effective. Companies like Tesla and others are making batteries that go either on sites with solar plants or become part of the grid. What that allows solar to do is make power during the day, but continue providing firm power through the evening. After people go to bed at 10 or 11 o’clock, the need for power drops dramatically. So this helps keep the lights on.

Power demand in the U.S. is growing strongly for the first time since the 1950s and 60s, and solar power is by far the most cost-effective way to meet that growing demand. This allows customers to have access to locally produced energy. And let’s not forget that commercial solar technology was invented in the United States in the 1950s by Bell Labs. What we’ve done at Nextracker, and what other companies in our industry have done, is bring the solar manufacturing job story back home.

Nick Cohen:

Melissa, two other points. We have a million panels coming from Texas. It’s a foreign company, not Chinese, that has a huge factory. They invested in Texas, and they’re producing massive quantities of panels for our projects in the Midwest.

And the other thing I would want a legislator to be aware of is that there is a movement right now attacking landowner rights across America. Local zoning authorities, in many cases, are telling landowners what they can and cannot do with their land.

Can you imagine owning a farm and being told that you can’t harvest the sun and have sheep on your farm? That’s what’s happening. Legislators should be thinking about how they can protect their constituents’ landowner rights. It’s a slippery slope. Once you tell someone they can’t have a private business transaction on their property with solar, the next thing they’re going to tell you is that you can’t have a barn because it’s ugly, or you can’t have a gun range because it’s noisy.

Suddenly, you get into a slippery slope. We’re starting to see zoning boards get emboldened very quickly. It’s becoming an impediment to progress in America, and it’s attacking landowner rights. So we need to protect those landowners.

Advice to Developers: Get Your Shoes Dirty or Don’t Try

Melissa Baldwin:

An attack on private property rights, yeah. We absolutely are seeing that. And I want to ask along that line, given that we’ve seen this pushback, when we think about the industry at large, and this is a question to both of you, what advice would you give to other developers who want to build in communities, given that we have this increased pushback?

Nick Cohen:

My advice is that you have to know where your strengths are, or be committed to it. As a developer, you’re either somebody who buys projects, which means somebody else did a lot of the groundwork, and there’s nothing wrong with that if that’s your strategy, or you’re someone who creates projects from scratch.

If you’re someone who creates them from scratch, then you need to own those relationships on the ground for real. You can’t just put on a suit or send people in to make land deals and buddy up with farmers, if they aren’t genuinely there to listen, work with them, and be their friends. It has to be real. So if you can’t do that, don’t even try.

Farmers are businesspeople. They’re smart, and they know their communities well. They’ll detect it if you’re not sincere, and it will make your development work much more difficult. In that case, you’re better off buying someone else’s project.

So that’s my advice. If you’re going to go meet the farmers, really get the sheep dung on your shoes. Really get to know them. Be sincere, and only send people who are sincere. Those people should go all the way to the top. Your CEO, your finance team, people who are in the office, they need to go out there and get their shoes dirty for real.

Melissa Baldwin:

Nick, you’re reminding me of something you said when you were on Scaling Clean the first time, episode 20. You talked about how people should be able to go from the barns to the boardroom. So I have to compliment you for having message discipline there. You’re very consistent in that. I think it’s a great point, right? You have to have somebody who’s comfortable having that conversation on the ground with the farmers and also knows how to run the business.

Nick Cohen:

Yeah. And believe me when I tell you, you need to make sure that somebody is everybody in your organization. Because it’s very easy to hire the smartest person you can find to do something in an office that you need. But they’re not the right person if they can’t go out there and sincerely have a good time connecting with the farmers.

How Execution-Driven Culture and Community Focus Enable Scale in Clean Energy

Melissa Baldwin:

Well, you’re touching on something. I want to give Dan a chance to answer the first question, which is, what advice would you give to other developers? But I’d also love to hear your thoughts, Dan, if you would share. Nick has been on the show before. We talk about the business of running your business. And Dan, you have grown and scaled Nextracker tremendously. Over the last several years, the company has gone through an IPO, and you’ve gone through a lot of growth.

So if I could give you a two-part question: one, what advice would you give to other developers? And then two, what advice would you give to other business owners in this space who are looking to grow and build a company that will thrive?

Dan Shugar:

Sure. On the first part, do what Doral did. And I don’t say that because I’m on this program with Doral, but what they did was engage with the community early and often, and really create a multi-win environment. Everybody who touched the project benefited, and it was done the right way. Local folks got to be engaged in the project at each phase, and in an ongoing way. So that was great.

Also, just the way the project is laid out, you don’t want to build around people by buying adjacent properties and things like that. You want to build responsibly and work with high-quality products. What we’ve done is focus on how our products are delivered to minimize the number of trucks, and how they’re installed to minimize construction equipment, and have the minimum amount of packaging on site that has to be dealt with. Those types of things.

In terms of building a great company, easy to say but hard to do, build a great culture. You can focus on the right things for your mission and your vision, but then you need a culture that’s focused on the right things. What we’re focused on at Nextracker is innovation that delivers value for customers and projects. We’re focused on customers, really listening and understanding their needs. We’re focused on execution, meaning we ensure that every engagement we touch, whether it’s a supplier, an employee, a vendor, an end customer, or a government agency, we meet or exceed expectations. And we’re focused on our internal team.

I’m proud that six of my six co-founders from 13 years ago are still with the company. So we try to do the right thing and have the right intent. That’s allowed us to grow to number one in our space over the last 10 years. Basically, we’ve delivered over 130 gigawatts of material. That’s equivalent to the peak load of Texas, or double the peak load of California. So a company I founded for a few million dollars a dozen years ago has delivered enough material to support two Californias, or one Texas, in the middle of their peak summer day. It shows the power of ideas, and that great people, the right intent, and culture allow you to accomplish seemingly impossible things.

Solar is one of the best ways to generate power because there are no moving parts, no fuel and it uses a relatively small amount of natural materials, and it’s fully recyclable.

I think there’s a tremendous opportunity. I believe solar will be the number one source of energy generation in the world within this decade. In the United States, the Energy Information Administration basically shares that view, and so does the International Energy Agency. Solar is the greatest way to generate power because there are no moving parts, no fuel, it uses a very small amount of natural materials, and it’s fully recyclable.

Nick Cohen:

If anybody’s studying company culture academically, they should be looking at Nextracker and Dan’s company. He’s validated his culture with creativity and excellence. Because as you can imagine, when you have $2 billion under construction, which we have right now, the problems you face are endless and complex. And his company steps up every single time and solves them. It’s amazing. We’re impressed every single time. I don’t even have to call Dan when problems are escalating. His people are there. They have a sense of urgency, a fire in their belly, and they come with ideas. They’re great team workers, and the solutions are amazing.

Dan Shugar:

That’s very gracious, Nick. I really appreciate it. We have a saying at Nextracker. I don’t care if it’s my problem, your problem, or someone else’s problem. How can we be helpful in solving whatever the issue is? By focusing on that rather than the contract, it’s helped us make sure customers are successful, and it’s built the confidence to move forward and support them on future work.

Success: What You Choose to Do vs. What You Choose Not to Do

Melissa Baldwin:

If I could have a final question, and you can keep it really short. We like to ask everyone this. Do you think that success hinges on what a company chooses to do, or not to do? I’m asking Dan, because Nick has already had a chance to answer this question. What do you think?

Dan Shugar:

I think both. Sometimes the best projects or programs are the ones you say no to, so we’re very discerning about that. But we’ve also taken on things that are really hard.

You have to go into everything you do, in my view, with the philosophy that we’ll be okay if whatever we’re considering doesn’t happen. You have to lose any sense of desperation. I don’t need the next project. What I need is another great partner. I don’t need to chase a shiny object in technology. What I need is to focus on problems that need solutions, rather than solutions in search of problems.

With that mindset, you end up doing the right things and avoiding the cul-de-sacs where you’re not adding a lot of value.

Closing Thoughts: Solar Is the New Industrial Revolution

Melissa Baldwin:

I love that mindset, Dan. That’s great. Okay, with that, that concludes all my questions. You both have a chance, if you want, to say any final parting words for our listeners.

Nick Cohen:

I’d like to say that when you think about solar, think about how it’s an incredible business proposition for communities all across America. And it’s driving the AI revolution. When you think about data centers, what do data centers need to exist? Power.

They have to go through us. So it’s really important that, if you’re a legislator or a listener, you’re out advocating for solar and battery storage and other forms of energy, and you’re doing everything you can to make sure America is competitive, and that people have the opportunity to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

And by the way, once you put a solar field in the ground, you can’t pick it up and move it to Mexico or somewhere else. It’s there producing electrons and revenue for the community for the next 35 years. And then when it’s finished, we pull it out, and guess what? You have fertile farmland there, and the families can take the farm over again.

It’s a wonderful win for everybody.

Melissa Baldwin:

Thank you, Nick. Any final words from you, Dan?

Dan Shugar:

It’s great to work with customers like Doral and Nick Cohen. They’re doing the right things for the right reasons, and doing them in partnership with communities. What we’ve tried to do is develop technology that helps those types of projects and programs be successful, while also building out our U.S. and overseas manufacturing facilities to serve overseas markets.

We’re at the beginning of a really Solar 3.0, an incredible revolution. It’s wonderful that we’ve seen the whole U.S. supply chain get built out, from trackers like we’re doing at Nextracker, through solar panels. And I think our best days are in front of us. Thank you so much for the opportunity to participate in this podcast, and we look forward to more great projects together.

Melissa Baldwin:

Thank you both.