2017 Global Solar Inverter Ranking: Huawei Leads Three Years in a Row, String Inverters Overtake Central Inverter for First Time

The third-party international authoritative consulting institute GTM Research released its report on global solar inverter market shares and shipments in 2017. The top 10 solar inverter vendors in 2017 are: Huawei (26.4%), Sungrow (16.7%), SMA (8.7%), ABB (5.6%), Sineng (4.6%), TBEA SunOasis (3.9%), Power Electronics (2.9%), TMEIC (2.8%), Schneider Electric (2.6%), and SolarEdge Technologies (2.5%).

2017 witnessed a record of 98.563 GW of solar inverter shipments, with a 23% growth compared with 2016. The top-20 vendors shipped over 1 GW of products, accounting for 93% of global shipments, the highest since GTM began to keep track in 2010.

The concentrating market has reinforced the Matthew effect. Top vendors with accumulated advantages continue to expand fast. The top 4 solar inverter vendors have maintained the ranking from 2015 to 2017, with Huawei on top of the list for three years in a row.

In terms of the segment market, three-phase string inverter shipments hit 46.233 GW in 2017 and grew 49% year-over-year. Central inverter shipments reached 42.382 GW. It is the first time that string inverter shipments exceeded those of central inverters by nearly 4 GW.

Thanks to the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technology, string inverters achieve a better performance in energy yields, adaptability to complex environments, management granularity, reliability, and maintenance costs. They have gained more popularity in large ground-mounted power plants. Taking China’s Top Runner program, for example, string inverters have taken up more than 80% in power plants. The GTM report is also a proof that string inverters have become the mainstream for large ground-mounted power plants.

Source: huawei