Sungrow, Huawei and Sineng Electric were the major suppliers of solar inverters to the Indian solar market in calendar year (CY) 2020, according to the recently released report by Mercom, India Solar Market Leaderboard 2021.
Mercom’s latest report provides an overview of industry leaders’ market share and shipments ranking in India’s solar supply chain.
The top three companies accounted for 56% of the total CY 2020 market share. The top five solar inverter suppliers accounted for nearly 80% of the total inverter supply in the country in 2020.
String inverters
String inverters have made rapid inroads into the Indian solar market over the past two years. In the string inverter category, Huawei led the way with 37% market share, closely followed by Sungrow and Growatt with 19% and 13% respectively. Other names on the list included Goodwe and Solis.
Central inverters
Central inverters accounted for about 51% of total shipments. Sungrow, Sineng Electric and FIMER India (formerly ABB) were the main suppliers with 29%, 26% and 20% respectively. Kehua Tech and TMEIC were the other main suppliers on the list.
Sungrow, FIMER and Sineng Electric were the main UPS suppliers in the first half (1H) of CY 2020.
In the 2021 budget, the finance minister proposed to raise tariffs on solar inverters from 5% to 20% to encourage domestic production. The government believes that by increasing tariffs and increasing the cost of imports, manufacturers will have an incentive to manufacture in India. Recognizing the growing demand for inverters, Chinese manufacturers, including Sungrow, and TBEA have already opened manufacturing units in India.
In December of last year, Mercom hosted a webinar to discuss the impact of solar inverter technologies on project performance. The webinar shed light on the technology trends driving the market and how Indian developers decide which inverters will be used for their projects. Although inverters account for 5% of the total project cost, their impact on performance, stability and the discounted cost of energy is substantial, making quality and technology the main drivers. The developers who attended the webinar said that bifacial modules with string inverters are the future trend.
A full list of inverter suppliers and their market share is available through Mercom’s India Solar Market Share Tracker.
Rakesh is a journalist at Mercom India. Prior to joining Mercom, he held numerous positions as Business Correspondent, Assistant Editor, Senior Content Editor and Sub Editor at bcfocus.com, CIOReview / Silicon India, Verbinden Communication and Bangalore Bias. Rakesh holds a BA in English from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). More articles by Rakesh Ranjan.