Huawei

Enphase, Huawei and other companies which make inverters in China may be the beneficiaries of a compromise struck between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

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.

The 12th Renewable Energy India (REI) Expo opened its doors today; the booming music and bright sunshine mirroring India’s ambitious goals to become the biggest RE market in the world. In the opening conference, the government’s commitment to renewables was underlined, while BNEF said the country will have one of the highest penetrations of solar and wind, globally, by 2050. Companies are also starting to look to India for manufacturing opportunities, although the landscape is still filled with uncertainty.

Huawei spoke to pv magazine in response to the latest allegations made by SolarEdge regarding the latter’s allegedly infringed intellectual property. Huawei is adamant it is one of the world’s largest owners of intellectual property rights and fully supports the protection of IP. The Chinese manufacturer denies the claims made by SolarEdge and points to its extensive IP and research and development (R&D) efforts to support its defense.

Following the claim filed in June, SolarEdge now alleges Huawei has infringed two more of its patents. With its HD-wave inverter topology the subject of the first lawsuit, the Israeli manufacturer now says its Chinese rival also copied its power optimizer technology.

Peijun Shen of Huawei discusses integrating bifacial modules into PV power plant projects from the Future PV discussion at this year’s Intersolar Europe. Bifacial technology is making leaps and bounds, and suppliers up and down the value chain have to deliver new technologies and solutions to pave the way for the next steps in PV systems.

Following Monday’s announcement, pv magazine spoke to Lior Handelsman, of SolarEdge. The company VP is adamant Huawei has infringed the Israeli firm’s intellectual property, and says defending IP will see the PV industry grow.

The Netherlands is a country with one of the highest population densities in the world and, as a consequence, it has constrained availability of surfaces and land for all kinds of purpose, including the deployment of rooftop solar power generators. Residential PV could really help the country implement its challenging energy transition, which is to reach its almost impossible RES targets for 2020.

pv magazine met with representatives of Chinese inverter manufacturer Huawei at the company’s booth at Intersolar Europe today to discuss the patent infringement case brought by SolarEdge in Germany.

The inverter manufacturer alleges that its patented DC optimized inverter technology has been infringed on in the German market. It adds that Huawei’s residential inverters use an architecture, which violates its patents. Huawei has said it is “evaluating the claims”, however it does not believe it has infringed any valid patent rights.