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List of Major Solar Inverter Manufacturers – Competition Rising

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Solar InverterSolar Inverters are a crucial component of the overall solar system accounting for around 10% of the overall costs.Solar inverters connect the solar panels to the grid converting the DC to AC which is used by the grid.Solar inverters have become highly sophisticated with features like optimization and monitoring etc.The efficiency of solar inverters are a major factor in their purchase as  well as the quality and reliability.Inverters comes in various sizes and can be as large as 1 MW for utility applications.Unlike Solar Panels,the Solar Inverter Market is much less crowded though competition is growing as the size of the market increases rapidly.The ~$2.1 billion market in 2009 with 7 GW of installations has increased by more than 130% to around  $5 billion in 2010 as the solar panel demand globally increased to around 17 GW.

Note Solar Inverter Companies have done much better as competition is much lower and the annual price declines in solar inverters has been much lower at around 10% compared to the 50% decline in solar panel in the last 2-3 years.Here is a list of the major solar power inverter companies. Market with around 40% of the global marketshare and has become the most valued solar company in Europe as well.The company has managed to keep its margins despite price decreases.The company faces pressures from increasing competition and declining prices.

List of Top Solar Inverter Companies

1) SMA Solar – The Big Daddy of the Solar Inverter Market with a   40% Marketshare of the Global Market.This Germany company has become the most valued solar company in Germany beating out the old stalwarts like Q-Cells  and Solarworld. SMA Solar has managed to maintain its marketshare and grow as fast  with the global solar demand unlike some of its competitors.SMA Solar faces tough times ahead as the growing inverter industry attracts numerous competitors and it remains to be seen whether it can avoid the fate of Q-Cells.

2) Power-One – The US power management company has shown the fastest growth in 2010 and has increased its marketshare to around 13% to become the No.2 global player.Power-One is mainly concentrated in Europe and is now expanding to Asia and its home market of USA.

3) Kaco New Energy – Like SMA,this is also a German company though privately held.It too benefited from the strong growth in German solar market in 2009 and 2010 to become a large players.It is has not grown as fast as SMA but is still a big players

4) Fronius International – Very similar to Kaco in terms of its growth and being German.Fronius was a top 3 player in 2009 but has seen upstarts  like Power-One take more marketshare

5) Satcon – Satcon is similar to Power-One but has not grown as fast nor does it have the high margins of its bigger competitor.It is strong in the US utility market and is growing its operations there.Like Power-One shifting its manufacturing

6) Schieder Electric – This European Electrical Equipment Giant got into the solar inverter market by buying up Canadian Producer Xantrex.

7) General Electric – GE is trying to become an integrated player in the solar PV market supplying everything from products to services.GE is a big producer of wind energy inverters so getting into this allied business is not too tough for this company.

8 ) Sputnik Engineering – Sputnik is a Swiss company that has used the European solar growth to become a reasonably big player in the solar inverter market

9) Advanced Energy – AEIS which is a US semiconductor company  is also a big manufacturer of solar inverters.It stands to benefit from the future growth of the Solar Market in the US.

Other solar inverter producers are Siemens,Delta Electronics ( bought Solon solar inverter division),ABB and many other small players.The Solar inverter market has also seen a major shift with the entry of micro-inverters by companies like Enphase.The Solar Inverter Market is seeing increasing competition as its large growing size attracts numerous companies.While valuations of many companies have come to single digits,it may not be a good time to buy because of increasing oversupply and competition.

Author Links

  1. Advantages of Solar Energy – Declining Cost the Biggest One
  2. Solar ETF Analysis and Review- Guide to Buying (TAN,KWT)
  3. List of Top MNC Conglomerates (Toshiba,LG,TSMC,GE) getting into Solar Energy- Growing Continuously
  4. List of World’s Top (Solar,Semi) 8 Polysilicon Companies – Asia Rising as Big get Bigger
  5. List of World’s Top Solar Wafer Companies – Growing Bigger
  6. List of Top Solar Thermal/Concentrated Solar Power(CSP) Companies – Under Threat from Solar PV
  7. List of Top Global Solar Cell Suppliers – A Disappearing Breed
  8. List of Top 15 Global Solar Thin Film Companies – Who will Survive and Who Won’t
  9. List of World’s Major Solar Energy Companies
PG

Abhishek Shah

8 Responses so far | Have Your Say!

  1. Inverter_Herder

    “remains to be seen whether it can avoid the fate of Q-Cells.” Really?

    Meh, SMA will do ok in the long run as Enphase’s new jumpstart IPO will allow them to buyout SMA and save them from oblivion.

  2. SRoeCo Solar

    Nice list of solar inverter manufacturers. You can compare the efficiencies of these manufacturers’ inverters here

  3. Subroto

    There are just 2 responses here. Where are the other 2 ??

  4. Allegra Sloman

    Schneider-Electric is mispelled in this article.

  5. solar power companies to invest in

    The two factors is very important to consider the efficiency of solar inverter i.e quality and reliability.keep posting such kind of good information.

  6. TIBEI

    Useful insights. You are right that competition is growing as the size of the solar inverter market is increasing very quickly. The solar panel demand was 17 GW in 2010 and now Global solar analysts NPD Solarbuzz have forecast in their Quarterly Report that global PV demand is likely to reach 49 GW in 2014. So it’s really growing rapidly.

    We are leading B2B supplier, manufacturer and exporter of hybrid solar inverters from India.
    TIBEI
    BG-7/19 Paschim Vihar,
    New Delhi-110063,India
    Phone: +91 1141077622
    Email: info@tibei.in
    Solar Inverters – http://www.tibei.in/solar-inverters.php

  7. Dhananjay Pratap Singh

    Dear sir We want solar inverters for supply in Indian market so advice us which company is best for supply in the Indian market for supply.

  8. Umesh R Giri

    I am a interested in the soler inverter distribution ship