Traditional and Emerging Energy Innovation

Abandoned Pittsburgh Steel Factory Renovated to Serve Growing U.S. Utility-Scale Solar Market

BCI Steel Plant Engineer, Rob Sweet on the new fabrication line in Leetsdale, Pennsylvania
Written by Staff Writer

Nextracker LLC, the global market leader in utility-scale solar trackers, and BCI Steel, a Pittsburgh-based steel fabricator, are reopening the historic Bethlehem Steel manufacturing factory in nearby Leetsdale to produce solar tracker equipment for large-scale solar power plants.

The steel processing plant will incorporate both BCI Steel’s new and reshored equipment shipped to the U.S. from factories in Malaysia and Brazil. Solar tracker products produced at the factory will serve rapidly growing solar markets in Pennsylvania, Indiana, New York, and Ohio.

This is the third solar tracker fabrication line Nextracker has commissioned with a steel manufacturing partner in 2022 as part of its commitment to rebuilding America’s steel and solar supply chains. With additional capacity in Pittsburgh, Nextracker is building out 10 GW of “Made in America” manufacturing capacity — enough to power 7.5 million homes.

The newly reopened Pittsburgh factory is ideally situated with proximity to river and rail transport in a location steeped in manufacturing history. The factory lies on the same grounds where steel fabricators built materials for tank landing ships (LSTs) during WWII.

About Nextracker 

Nextracker is the leading provider of intelligent, integrated solar tracker and software solutions used in utility-scale and ground-mounted distributed generation solar projects around the world. Our products enable solar panels in utility-scale power plants to follow the sun’s movement across the sky and optimize plant performance. With over 50 GW shipped worldwide, Nextracker leads the solar industry with solar tracker technologies that optimize and increase energy production while reducing costs for significant plant ROI. For more information, please visit www.Nextracker.com.

About BCI Steel

Headquartered in Leetsdale, PA, just outside of Pittsburgh, BCI Steel is a global engineering, contract manufacturing and supply chain management company specializing in the production of industrial metal products for Original Equipment Manufacturers. In addition to steel fabrication, we are experts in new product development, design for manufacturing, quality control, and logistics. BCI has worked closely with Nextracker since its inception to help deliver the highest quality steel products to its solar tracker customers around the world.

For more information: https://bci-engineering.com/

About U. S. Steel (NYSE: X

Founded in 1901, United States Steel Corporation is a leading steel producer. With an unwavering focus on safety, the company’s customer-centric Best for All® strategy is advancing a more secure, sustainable future for U. S. Steel and its stakeholders. With a renewed emphasis on innovation, U. S. Steel serves the automotive, construction, appliance, energy, containers, and packaging industries with high value-added steel products such as U. S. Steel’s proprietary XG3™ advanced high-strength steel. The company also maintains competitively advantaged iron ore production and has an annual raw steelmaking capability of 22.4 million metric net tons. U. S. Steel is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with world-class operations across the United States and in Central Europe. For more information, please visit www.ussteel.com.

About the author

Staff Writer