As solar modules grow larger and developers continue to chase domestic content tax credit bonuses, steel frames produced in U.S. facilities can play a key role in addressing the needs of the market.
“The only way we are going to scale real frame manufacturing in the U.S. to support the U.S. solar base is by leaning on steel,” said Jenya Meydbray, vice president of advanced steel frames at Nextpower, in a recent live presentation during pv magazine USA Week 2026.
To support his claim, Meydbray pointed out that steel roll-forming facilities are fairly compact and easy to establish in virtually any part of the country, while standing up large-scale aluminum extrusion facilities would take a multi-hundred-million-dollar investment in a smelting plant.
Meydbray said Nextpower is currently ramping enough steel frame capacity to build 6.5 GW of modules, enough to supply nearly 15% of the 45 GW in module manufacturing capacity estimated to have been active in the U.S. at the start of 2026. That’s an impressive figure for a company that inked its first module frame deal only 12 months before.
During his presentation, Meydbray also outlined the reasons developers should choose modules with domestic steel frames. First, he said, the era of “big floppy modules” has arrived, with surface area growing 50% in the last 5 years as glass and frames get thinner. Meydbray says a steel frame, roll-formed in exactly the same dimensions as existing aluminum frames, increases module strength by 2.3 times, reducing the risk of glass breakage from deflection under load.
“Steel provides structural support that aluminum simply cannot match,” Meydbray said.
A final benefit of steel frames is that they contribute a significant amount to the calculation of domestic content percentage, for the purposes of claiming the 10% bonus tax credit under the Section 48E solar investment tax credit (ITC).
For projects completed in 2027 and beyond, at least 55% of the total cost of all manufactured product components (such as modules, inverters, and racking) must be mined, produced, or manufactured in the United States. In addition, 100% of structural steel and iron (such as racking and foundation posts) must be produced in the United States.
Meydbray pointed out that Nextpower’s domestic single-axis tracking products already count toward 28.7% of the manufactured product component percentage in a solar project, and noted that a domestic steel frame adds another 6% to the calculation.
For more details on Nextpower’s NX Core steel module frames, watch Jenya Meydbray’s full pv magazine USA Week presentation on YouTube.
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