The Exchanges

Q Greg, Tell me more about what the most, the highest value propositions are. Tell me about cost comparisons. How much are you factoring in, like, emissions and the, the, the, the move to factor in embodied emissions in the development and purchase of solar products? What are the most significant value propositions that potential customers are interested in?

A Steel frames. Is a very strategic way to de-risk the supply chain. It's not the whole supply chain for a module or for a project, but it is material being number two or three, uh, on the old bomb. And so I think if you look at the value proposition, it's stacked, but I'd say de-risking the supply chain is first and foremost, because when you have the existential threat of interruptions, Or arbitrary price increases because of, uh, tariffs or political decisions made on either side of the Pacific. That's really hard to manage. It's really hard to hedge. So that's it. And you get a great combo, given the domestic content that the IRA provides in terms of the tax credit. You get a material impact on increasing your domestic content as you De-risk the supply chain from Asia. The next one that's really starting to play out, and this has been coming, you know, I'd say the last six to nine months, there's an increasing focus on module fragility. Uh, the reality is the size of modules have increased over 40%. At the same time, there's been cost down efforts on both glass and frames to reduce the material And thus, the structural capabilities. And so, we have this perfect storm of cost reduction, the core structural elements. At the same time, we're seeing more and more weather, extreme weather events, be it wind, snow, or hail, that is requiring a higher performance structural support …

AI assessment note: “if you look at the value proposition, it's stacked, but I'd say de-risking”

Q How did you land on this 90% reduction in GHG, embodied GHG emissions in production of these frames compared with aluminum module frames? Um, yeah, this was a report that you put together with, uh, Boundless Impact, Boundless Impact Partners, is that right? And, uh, so tell me about like that analysis and the actual comparison and how you came to those numbers.

A Yeah, we did. We realized that, you know, just like with our testing results, we want to use third parties, very, very credible third parties, and Boundless Impact is a very focused, uh, engineering consulting firm that does lifecycle analytics, and so we basically just told them the, uh, the characteristics of our steel frame, and then they researched aluminum frames, and they developed this, and that 90% Reduction per average size module is based on their analysis, and we've updated it with actually our definitive supply chain, and it got a little bit better. But it really is a rigorous analysis, and that 90% reduction, which is a really big relative number, translates also to about a 90 kilogram carbon footprint reduction per module. And if you scale that to gigawatt scale, I think it's like a 180,000 metric tons of carbon avoided per gigawatt. And so, that is absolute materiality if you look at it. And so, we're also working very closely with the Ultra Low Carbon Solar Alliance, we're members, and they have been pushing the EPECO label. And we are literally geared up, and with literally third-party validated reductions, what we're able to do is provide to our customers that buy, the module manufacturers, a absolute data-driven reduction that they could go and try to achieve the EP criteria that I think is going to become increasingly more important going forward, because we…

AI assessment note: “we basically just told them the, uh, the characteristics of our steel frame”

Q We have another example of a solar technology that has, uh, been reassured, and that is trackers, and steel has been critical for the growth of that industry. Uh, Greg, any, uh, corollaries to the, the, the tracker market? Like, can module frames follow trackers?

A There's, uh, absolutely similarities. Uh, it's, one, it's the proof bank that says, How quickly you can reshore and create the local jobs and economic upsides without any material negatives for the solar industry. And in fact, reshoring and using steel, uh, accelerates and increases confidence in project development and construction by shortening the supply chain materially without concerns about logistics costs or uncertainties in delivery. And given the bottlenecks we have continued to have on all the ports and with the Random aspect of customs quarantine. It, it gives confidence. It actually improves the execution in the region. But the one difference between us and the tracker company is that we are taking advantage of a material cost difference. We're not just reshoring the same material to the U.S. We're actually reshoring using domestic steel, which is Traditionally been about the third the cost of, of aluminum. So we get to bring in a new metal, reshore the, the production of that, build the worldwide global competency center for it here, ah, instead of following and hoping to leverage from the Chinese. Ah, but how do we do that? And we can do that because of the inherent benefits and cost effectiveness of steel. We can do that at parity. And eventually, materially lower cost without sacrificing the performance and the decarbonization, ah, that, ah, comes with aluminum.

AI assessment note: “There's, uh, absolutely similarities. Uh, it's, one, it's the proof bank”

Q So on the developer installer side, Greg, What are the big questions people have? I'm sure they want to know about corrosion. You know, you've just gone through corrosion and load testing, so what are the sources of uncertainty around a new product?

A We are actively engaging with all the big EPCs, developers, asset owners, and we're actually at SEBA last, I think it was last week, um, really trying to get everybody aware of the value proposition of steel frames, get their questions answered, and if I just Unpack this. The EPCs love the improvement in performance. We've gotten lots of stories about how many modules are broken just installing them on trackers, and the ability to give them a more robust frame that is, as one said, doesn't feel like a pool noodle, uh, is very, very, very positively received. They're concerned about the way, but we can solve that. We walk them through the exact increase in weights, and they say, okay, that's not an issue. And so, from an EPC perspective, we're getting tremendous thumbs up on how a higher performance steel frame can improve the ability to get projects in the ground. On the developer side, very excited about the domestic content. Surprisingly excited. Don't know how to monetize, but it's surprisingly excited about the decarbonization, because a lot of their money is coming for folks that make that a priority. But they're interested. They want to understand corrosion. They're very excited about our performance issues with weather, but corrosion, and so we're spending a lot of time walking them through why the zinc aluminum magnesium coatings that I'll shorten to zam, uh, as I talk …

AI assessment note: “They're concerned about the way... They want to understand corrosion.”

Q So to wrap up with a big picture question, in your op-ed, Greg, you asked a really simple question, which was, So, are we serious? Are we committed to building a safe, secure, and transparent domestic supply chain? Are we serious about decarbonization? Are we serious about shoring up our immense vulnerabilities? When you ask, are we serious, who are you referring to?

A Well, uh, it, it truly is the module manufacturers, but it links to virtually the entire industry. The people that are going to be building these large projects, They've got to be, you know, as I look, think about it, solar has to mature the hell up, if I use that term. If we're going to be the backbone of the future grid, which is what everybody believes is the right answer, we've got to really understand, uh, literally how will it perform? So we're asking the entire industry, and to a degree we're asking the questions that says, Can you scale to be the backbone, first and foremost? Two, will you deliver over the long haul the performance you need to be that backbone? And are we going to get really serious? Like MJ said, you know, I view the carbon content as a brand tarnisher, and we got to get out of that brand tarnishment effort. And so we have to get the entire industry aligned. But the ancillary benefits that come with these questions and the shift, not just in frames, but across the entire solar supply chain and technology suite, it is, we will have a more robust, scalable, higher performing energy grid, and that's what we're looking for. And so it's to the entire industry that ultimately has to rally around these fundamental questions.

AI assessment note: “it truly is the module manufacturers, but it links to virtually the entire industry.”

Q live as part of our Frontier Forum series, and we asked, what would it take to replace foreign-sourced aluminum with U.S.-made recycled steel? And why does it matter? This conversation isn't just about frames. It's a story about geopolitics, trade, the complexities of manufacturing, and the urgency of improving the reliability of solar. So did you start by evaluating recycled steel first? How did you, like, tackle the problem initially?

A Steel is a better metal. The thing that we had to solve first and foremost was corrosion concerns. Steel rusts. Perceptions, aluminum doesn't. And aluminum is a really good corrosion, uh, solution, especially anodized aluminum. But we realized that if you could solve Corrosion, which I'll walk through in detail how we did that, uh, as well as the weight, because steel is much, much denser than aluminum, and that's where the design challenge was, is how do you really minimize, uh, to a point of immateriality the weight gain of a steel frame versus an aluminum frame, and so, and the increasing focus on decarbonizing solar It was just a natural, uh, with the opportunity of the robust regional and, for sure, domestic recycled steel industry. Because recycled steel is the vast majority of the steel used in the U.S. today, and Europe, and most other regions. And so, it was a wonderful blend of the opportunities. And steel's inherent fatigue resistance, higher strength, uh, it's truly just a better metal than aluminum for a steel frame application.

AI assessment note: “The thing that we had to solve first and foremost was corrosion concerns.”