Looking back at the Australian photovoltaic market

If Germany is the birthplace of the world's photovoltaic industry, then Australia is definitely a paradise for Chinese string inverter manufacturers.

In 2010, several companies that started out from Santak, including Samil, Aesop, Growatt, Jingfuyuan, and Shanghai Hangrui, also developed string inverters. At that time, the domestic distributed market had not yet taken off, and more than 90% of ground-mounted power stations in the west used centralized inverters. The European market was very hot, but there were also many local inverter companies in Europe, with advanced technology and high barriers to entry. Chinese inverters had no experience in use, so it was difficult to enter in a short period of time. Without a market, there is no room for survival.

In 2009, Australia introduced a very favorable photovoltaic power subsidy policy, with a subsidy of 0.5 Australian dollars per kilowatt-hour, which was equivalent to RMB 2.5 per kilowatt-hour at the time. The photovoltaic market experienced explosive growth, and the newly installed capacity reached 383MW that year. Australia's requirements for inverters were not as high as those in Europe. Inverters from mainland China occupied this market with price and service advantages, and also made domestic inverter companies earn their first pot of gold. Except for Hangrui, the other four Santak inverter companies all obtained rich profits and sufficient living space. Inverter manufacturers also attracted a large number of outstanding talents. Based on the batch application in Australia, the technical strength continued to improve. Since 2012, they have gradually opened up high-end markets such as Europe and America. Due to mergers and acquisitions or funding issues, companies such as Samy and Aesop were unable to continue their performance in the domestic market explosion in 2016. Growatt remained stable and took the lead, entering the first echelon of string inverters.

Therefore, it can be said that without Australia’s photovoltaic subsidy policy at the time, there would be no current prosperity of domestic string inverters.

From July 1, 2011, Australia's subsidy multiplier will be reduced to 3, from July 1, 2012 to 2, and to July 1, 2013 to 1. The photovoltaic boom is no longer there, and domestic inverter manufacturers are gradually withdrawing and heading to other regions such as Europe. However, the domestic inverter technology level at this time is no longer that of a nobody. After years of technological accumulation and precipitation, even facing the strong teams in Europe and the United States, it is not inferior. In round after round of cost reduction and efficiency improvement competition, it has brought down its opponents one by one. Not only is it now difficult to obtain foreign inverters in China, but the high-end market in Europe and the United States is also evenly matched.

In 2017, Australia began to promote large-scale photovoltaic power stations. More than 20 projects with a total installed capacity of nearly 1GW were financed that year. In addition, large-scale solar power generation projects with a total capacity of more than 3.7GW were also promoted. This was mainly due to the successful competitive financing of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation's continued A$250 million large-scale solar financing plan.

In 2018, Australia's wind power, photovoltaic and energy storage industries added nearly US$20 billion in investment, and the number of renewable energy projects under construction reached 14.6GW. In 2018, Australia added 3.7757GW of photovoltaic installed capacity (1.27GW in 2017), and utility installed capacity showed explosive growth, reaching 2.0826GW.

In 2018, Australia's household photovoltaic installed capacity reached 1.2272GW, a year-on-year increase of 42.8% over 2017. By the end of 2018, Australia had more than 2 million households with installed photovoltaic systems. More than one-fifth of households have installed photovoltaic systems, which is also one of the regions with the highest penetration rate in the world.

According to the forecast of consulting companies, Australia's photovoltaic installed capacity will reach 4.7GW in 2019. Australian state governments are vigorously supporting household energy storage, providing $147 million in subsidies and low-interest loans. More than 70,000 Australian households will install batteries in 2019. This makes Australia one of the most attractive markets in the world. Looking back, Australia will provide new opportunities for Chinese photovoltaic inverters and energy storage inverters.