The two leaders of the inverter industry: Huawei on the left and Sungrow on the right

The power restrictions in the three northeastern provinces in the first half of the year caused many factories to stop production, which had a certain impact on the normal life of the people. In addition to our country, many European countries are also in the dilemma of power supply difficulties. In addition, Japan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and other countries have also experienced varying degrees of power supply shortages.

In order to alleviate this situation, many countries are actively looking for new solutions to solve the shortage of traditional energy by using new energy. In this critical period, the new energy field and photovoltaic power generation have ushered in their golden period of development. With the continuous expansion of the power conversion market, the demand for inverters that promote power conversion has also surged, and the inverter market has achieved unprecedented development.

As the two leading companies in the inverter market, both Sungrow, which started earlier, and Huawei, which entered the market at the right time, have found their own development direction and continue to deepen their layout in the field of inverters, which they are good at. However, it is worth noting that the development directions chosen by Huawei and Sungrow are very different. Where will they go in the future? Let's find out together.

With the establishment of the carbon neutrality goal, we will inevitably have greater actions in the field of new energy in the future, and photovoltaic power generation will inevitably have a stronger market. According to statistics, the number of newly installed grid-connected photovoltaic power generation in my country reached 54.9GW in 2021. From this, we can also see the huge potential of my country's photovoltaic power generation market. Behind this is the strong demand for inverters, because the inverter is very important in the photoelectric conversion process. Its role is irreplaceable and has a direct impact on the output and conversion of electricity.

In addition, in the process of photovoltaic power generation and wind power generation, the demand for electric energy reserves is also increasing. After all, only sufficient energy storage equipment can ensure the significance of photovoltaic power generation and wind power generation, which also increases the demand for inverters to a certain extent.

The development history of inverter manufacturing enterprises in my country is not long. During the early stage of industry exploration, the state also provided a large amount of subsidies to this field, which promoted the development of enterprises and achieved certain results in research and development. Domestic inverters are gradually emerging in the world market, showing increasingly strong strength, and their market share is also increasing year by year.

In the global inverter company rankings provided by Wood Machenzie, six Chinese companies are among the top ten, and Huawei and Sungrow are both among the top ten. In 2020, Huawei's inverter shipments were 41.7GW, accounting for 23% of global shipments, while Sungrow's annual inverter shipments were 35.0GW, accounting for 18% of the global market. From this data line, we can also see that the development prospects and position of my country's inverter companies are very advantageous.

Speaking of Sungrow Power Supply, it is a company that started out with inverters. Inverter production is its main business segment, and its continued deep cultivation in this field has also allowed Sungrow Power Supply's advantages to continue to strengthen. Now, in addition to the inverter field, Sungrow Power Supply's areas of involvement are also constantly expanding.

Sungrow has demonstrated strong strength in the fields of new energy vehicle charging systems, wind power inverters, and energy storage inverters. The products produced by Sungrow not only have superior performance but also are relatively inexpensive, so they are very cost-effective products. This is also an important reason why Sungrow has been recognized by the market.

Compared with Sungrow, Huawei started relatively late in the inverter field, but Huawei entered the market very skillfully. In the early years when the inverter market was just emerging, many companies got involved in it. my country now has more than 500 inverter manufacturers.

After an industry reshuffle, only a dozen companies continued to develop in this field. However, the market continued to expand and demand could not be met for a time. In this situation, Huawei entered the inverter field and got a very good starting point.

Since 2013, my country's inverter market has gradually matured, but the internal competition in the industry is quite serious. As a newcomer, Huawei has to find another way to achieve rapid development. Therefore, Huawei chose the field of string inverters as its main research direction. This has some overlaps with Huawei's main business, so Huawei has achieved rapid development.

Conclusion

In the past two years, the market share of string inverters has continued to rise. The inverter market will change in the future because different application scenarios determine different demands for inverters. However, with the development of technology, different inverters may be able to communicate with each other, which also requires our inverter manufacturers to keep up with market changes during the development process.