Xpanner unveils pile installation aid that attaches to skid steer

A company called Xpanner has released a new tool called Shake-Out that helps crews install the metal posts (piles) that hold up large solar panel arrays. It attaches to a skid loader, a small construction machine, and uses satellite positioning (GNSS) to guide the operator to exactly where each pile needs to go, using on-screen and audio cues instead of workers manually marking spots on the ground first.

This is aimed at big utility-scale solar farms, not home rooftop solar systems, so it will not affect homeowners installing panels on their own house. The tool logs each pile placement and syncs the data to a project management system, giving developers a real-time view of progress across a site. It can be mounted on any brand of skid loader, so construction crews do not need special equipment to use it.

For homeowners, this news is mostly a sign of how the solar industry is investing in tools to speed up and standardize construction of large solar farms, the kind that feed power to the grid. It does not change costs, rebates, or timelines for residential solar or home energy upgrades. Xpanner also released a similar excavator-mounted tool earlier this year for installing solar panels themselves, part of a broader push toward automating utility-scale solar construction.