Portable Factories Automate Large Solar Installations

The growth of solar installations worldwide has been massive. Solar energy accounted for about 81% of new electricity generation capacity in 2024 and is set to grow in the coming years. Solar panel prices continue to decrease as manufacturing becomes more cost-effective. However, despite lower prices for solar panels, installation costs have increased. Installation can account for nearly half of total costs.

Is robotics the solution to solar farm installation? Video used courtesy of Charge Robotics

Scaling solar for the future will require innovative approaches to save time and money. Charge Robotics has created a portable factory that automatically assembles and installs sections of large solar farms much quicker, easier, and cheaper than is possible manually.

Robotic solar panel installation. Image use courtesy of Charge Robotics

Panel Costs Down, Overall Solar Costs Up

China now owns around 80% of all solar manufacturing capacity in the world. While this is a monopoly, it has helped to significantly bring down the solar panel costs. With these lower manufacturing costs, the year-on-year costs have continued to drop. In the U.S., initiatives such as the Federal Solar Investment Tax Credit can cut the overall costs by up to 50%.

However, in the short term, non-hardware factors—including increased shipping costs, labor shortages, and long installation times—contribute to higher overall costs.

Photovoltaic system costs breakdown. Image used courtesy of Department of Energy

Charge Robotics founders saw the potential to change how solar installations are handled by manual labor with a robotic approach. While visiting an installation site in the Mojave Desert, California, that featured 2 million panels assembled by hand, they realized that scaling up to bigger installations needed another solution. The idea of a portable robotic factory was born.

Charge Robotics’ New Approach for Solar Installation

Charge Robotics is now developing portable solar installation factories that can speed up the installation process for solar farms. These are aimed at large-scale solar utility projects, as the portable factories are compatible with the most common solar panel sizes and parts.

Charge Robotics ships the factory to the installation site. All the equipment—steel tracks, mounting brackets, fasteners, and panels—are fed into a robotic assembly line that automatically assembles the panels ready for installation. Each assembly line has machine vision technology to scan the process line to ensure consistent quality. A robotic vehicle then puts the assembled panels into place within a defined section of the solar farm. The only installation step done manually is driving the first metal stakes into the ground.

Automated solar panel installation. Image used courtesy of Charge Robotics

The portable factory concept, named Sunrise, offers an alternative approach away from manual labor and toward a streamlined, automated process suitable for mass manufacturing. Its benefits include improved installation consistency, quality, speed, safety, and cost. It might be possible to install multiple factories at the same site to speed up projects and ensure that the installation is running 24/7.

Commercial Success Set to Grow

Charge Robotics deployed its prototype in the U.S., where Sunrise successfully installed a solar farm for SOLV Energy. Since then, the company has made additional system improvements to make it easier and faster to operate.

Charge Robotics plans to work with various solar construction companies to deploy more factories to installation sites. They could also be used alongside manual laborers. The company also raised $22 million to deploy their first commercial deployments this year.