Inverters

The French industrial equipment manufacturer expects to almost double turnover in solar by 2023. The company supplies materials for ingot production as well as providing electrical protection solutions such as fuses, fuse holders, heatsinks, wire management, disconnect switches, laminated busbars and surge protective devices.

The Spanish inverter maker will provide Norwegian developer Scatec with 66 PV inverter stations for projects it is building at the Benban complex.

The Chinese-based manufacturer has closed a deal for the supply of its inverter solutions to the large-scale solar project in southern Vietnam. Sungrow says it has deployed a total of 1 GW of solar projects in Vietnam.

The polysilicon, PV wafer and module and inverter maker has arranged a second EGM of 2018 to seek permission for two bond issues, as its peers scramble to raise their manufacturing capacities.

The inverter maker took number one spot in the US from SMA this year, and acquired majority stakes and IP in uninterrupted power supply company Gamatronic and storage system provider Kokam. While other companies have consolidated, SolarEdge managed to report robust results.

German inverter maker SMA has joined forces with China’s BYD after losing US market share to Solaredge, which this year linked up with Kostal to optimize communication interfaces between inverters and storage applications.

Big players such as Acme, ReNew, Adani, Azure, Hero Future and Aditya Birla Solar are likely to stay away from procurement which requires 3 GW annual manufacturing commitment, says industry insider Gopal Lal Somani.

The inverter maker will buy 75% of Kokam’s shares for $88 million, with an intent to acquire the remainder shortly after, on the open market. Strategic company acquisitions and close partnerships are characterizing this year’s inverter market, as companies seek to diversify and integrate storage systems and other technologies.

In a study on the potential for local manufacturing of renewable energy equipment in the Arab region, IRENA has assessed how three pilot Arab countries – Lebanon, Jordan and the UAE – where development of clean energy is currently strong, may host PV, CSP and wind energy industries. In all of them, however, there are currently few chances of seeing a rising solar and renewable energy manufacturing industry, due to a series of challenges, such as, among others, the lack of a qualified workforce, and favorable regulatory settings.

The global top three companies have not changed compared to the 2017 ranking. Still in the U.S., SMA has lost its pole position to Solaredge. Ingeteam, meanwhile, is capitalizing massively on stable growth in the utility-scale market, and jumps from rank 18 to fourth.