The US government has imposed anti-dumping duties on Chinese made solar panels but that has not stopped the major Chinese Tier 1 solar panel producers from growing their shipments in the USA. The reason for the Chinese solar module growth is the sharp cost advantage that they posses over US solar companies such as Sunpower (SPRW) and First Solar (FSLR). The US solar stocks have performed impressively in the recent past based on their solar system strength. However, the Chinese companies are entering this segment as well and these should reduce the US advantage. The US solar industry faces a new competitive front with the biggest Chinese solar inverter company Sungrow, bagging its first large scale utiliy order in the USA. Solar inverters are sophisticated products and developed markets are dominated by western solar inverter makers such as Power-One, SMA Solar and others. However, the massive Chinese market has allowed the Chinese companies to develop competencies and they are now targeting foreign markets.

Chinese solar inverters are 20-30% cheaper than western solar inverters and the efficiency gap between the Chinese products and the western products is becoming smaller and smaller. The global solar panel market is dominated by the Chinese players and now the solar inverter market may see a similar coup. Solar inverter company valuations are not expensive and I don’t think that they will fall from here. SMA-Solar bought a Chinese company to grow its Chinese operations so western companies are fighting back. Also the solar industry is growing at a tremendous clip which means that the western companies will be able to stay at the same marketshare level. SMA Solar is the exception as there is no way that the company can keep its No.1 position and 30% market share. The European market is rapidly decreasing and SMA does not have a big presence in the biggest markets such as Japan, India and China.

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PV Tech

Chinese inverter manufacturer Sungrow Power Supply has secured its first utility-scale order in the USA.Solar developer Southern Sky Renewable Energy has purchased 10 Sungrow SG500LV inverters for its 6MW Ravenbrook Landfill Solar Project in Carver, Massachusetts.Manny Sakellakis, executive partner of SDL Solar, Sungrow’s US agent, said: “We are very excited to be the first to bring Sungrow to the US market. As the landscape of the solar inverter market changes rapidly, I believe that Sungrow will capture a significant share of the US market in very short time.”