With the US ground-mounted utility PV market in focus, Nextracker, a leading PV tracker maker that recently forayed into electrical balance-of-system (eBOS) products, unveiled its trunk cable connector – NX PowerMerge.
The company’s eBOS portfolio includes string harnessing (combining PV strings into a single circuit), trunk connector (couples string harnesses to the main trunk cable), DC feeder cable, and load-break disconnect box. Using a central trunk bus architecture that runs above ground along the tracker arrays, it aggregates DC power collection from PV panels to inverters.
Among the key features of NX PowerMerge, Nextracker emphasizes field flexibility, cost, and reliability. Unlike the traditional prefabricated over-molded trunk connections placed at fixed intervals along the trunk cable, this product connects on-field at desired locations. This, in turn, offers design flexibility to engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) providers and owners according to site conditions. With a maximum current-carrying capacity or ampacity of more than 400 A and an operating system voltage of up to 2 kV, the trunk connector supports up to 8 copper tape wires with cross-sectional areas ranging from 6 AWG (13.3 sq.mm) to 8 AWG (8.32 sq.mm) each. The company states its design supports trunk cables with a cross-sectional area of up to 1,000 kcmil (506.7 mm2) compared to 750 kcmil or 500 kcmil for its standard counterparts, enabling higher PV array capacities with fewer connectors. These advantages are attributed to what the company calls ‘insertion teeth technology’, which expands contact surface area and reduces electrical resistance between the connector and trunk cable. The connector’s stainless-steel band clamps provide a secure and reliable DC power collection between PV strings and inverters. Additionally, the use of standard band clamp tools and connectorized input taps enables rapid installations, in line with the tightening of high labor costs.
According to the company, the NX PowerMerge is available for purchase with expected deliveries starting in Spring 2026. It adds that the product can also be manufactured in the USA on demand.
