Sungrow Power Supply Co., a Chinese solar PV inverter manufacturer, expects global demand for both central and string inverters to remain strong during 2014.
Sungrow experienced strong shipment and revenue growth in 2013, recently reporting China-based PV inverter shipments of approximately 3.5 GW in 2013, a 250% increase from 1 GW in 2012. According to market research reports, solar PV installations in China reached approximately 11.4 GW in 2013, becoming the largest single PV market. As a leading PV inverter manufacturer in China, Sungrow’s domestic market share stood at over 30% in 2013.
Sungrow also experienced strong overseas demand, with solar PV inverter shipments in 2013 increasing of over 100%. Success in key overseas markets such as the US, Greece, Germany, Australia, Latin America and South Africa, across ground mount large-scale, commercial and residential rooftop projects, employing a broad-based range of Sungrow’s central and string inverter technology offerings , which were key to the company’s expanding customer base and adoption.
Sungrow also reached the milestone of over 7GW of accumulated PV inverter deployment globally by the end of 2013 and was ranked 5th globally in terms of revenue and ranked 3rd in terms of shipments in 2013 by market research firm IHS.
Furthermore, Sungrow was identified as the most requested Chinese PV inverter brand in a recent IHS global survey of PV inverter buyers that included system integrators, distributors and installers.
Sungrow demand growth in 2014
Sungrow expects demand for its wide-range of technology leading solar PV inverters to remain strong in 2014 due to ground mount large-scale and distributed generation installations in China that are supported by Feed-in Tariffs (FiT) at the central and regional level of up to 14 GW of installations in 2014.
The new PV installation quota system in China is expected to provide greater certainty to PV project authorization through increased transparency to project approval and grid connection schedules.
Sungrow expects to retain its leading market share position in the expanding domestic China market in 2014, while overseas demand is also expected to remain strong in 2014, supported by increased customer support, continued new product introductions and the benefit of significant production capacity expansion initiated and completed in 2013.
Production expansion to meet demand
To meet both domestic and overseas demand, Sungrow increased PV inverter production from approximately 1.5GW in 2012 to approximately 5GW at the end of 2013.
“Sungrow expects to retain over 30 percent market share in China this year,” said Mr. Zheng Guibiao, Vice President of Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd. “The Company is guiding PV inverter shipments of between four gigawatts (GW) and five gigawatts. With Sungrow’s shipment targets increasing in 2014, further production expansions are under consideration and will be market driven should further customer support be needed.”
Sungrow has been successfully partnering on major PV projects with a number of other key partners throughout China. Sungrow has announced over 10 PV project agreements with partners that total over 1,899MW so far in 2014. SUMEC remains a key partner in 2014 and has already confirmed over 300MW of projects in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces cooperating with Sungrow.
PV projects span both ground mount and distributed generation across a number of regions in China and will deploy Sungrow’s wide range of high quality central and string inverter product offerings which comply with the latest grid connection regulations, notably AQSIQ(1) and SAC(2) and including GB/T 30427-2013: The Technical Requirements & Test Methods of Grid-Connected PV Inverters, on which Sungrow lead draft consultations and development and which will take effect on Aug. 15, 2014.
Mr. Zheng Guibiao added, “Sungrow’s continued success is based on our research and development, quality control and innovative product introductions. A new string inverter series will be launched soon, addressing a key emerging customer need as the China market rapidly evolves to include large quantities of distributed generation.”