The world's top five PV inverter giants storm the Chinese PV market

Photovoltaic inverters have become the only remaining warmth in this winter's photovoltaic winter, but this sub-industry has not escaped a leap-forward development, and then learned the speed of light-redundancy. On December 7, Intersolar, the world's leading solar energy industry exhibition, first came to China. The atmosphere at the scene was evaluated by some exhibitors as "the weather is as cold as in Beijing today."

The exhibition hall located at the National Convention Center was small, with fewer than 100 exhibitors, and the domestic photovoltaic module makers were even more absent. "It's really the winter of the industry." An exhibitor lamented the reporter. "But we have a good sales this year."

The days are "good", and they are equipment manufacturers that produce photovoltaic inverters. This is almost the winter of this round of industry, the only sunlit area. Benefiting from the decline in component prices and the introduction of domestic benchmark electricity prices, photovoltaic inverters, as the core power conditioning devices for photovoltaic systems, are enjoying the benefits brought by the domestic market.

Do not ignore the risks. Relatively low technical threshold has also attracted a large number of new players, over-investment, price war and shuffling. In addition to peer competition, photovoltaic inverter manufacturers also have to face a fairly strong upstream and downstream industrial chain.

The emergence of photovoltaic inverters in the domestic market is well-accepted, but its function is very simple: convert the direct current generated by photovoltaics into alternating current, and thus connect to the grid system or load.

Photovoltaic inverters can stand alone and have their own intrinsic reasons - it is not in the polysilicon industry chain, but an application of power electronic equipment in the photovoltaic field. This round of polysilicon photovoltaic product prices did not hurt the inverter industry. “Our sales revenue for this year is still increasing. The price of photovoltaic modules is so low. We have a 1.15 yuan guaranteed bottom price. The owner power station is built much more. We sell much more.” Anhui Yuhe New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. ( Zhu Yang, the regional manager of Yan and New Energy, told reporters at the Intersolar show.

Capital also saw opportunities in it. A venture capitalist in the clean energy industry once told reporters: “The solar market investment opportunity is a matter of opinion. For example, inverters and micro-inverters have attracted a lot of attention and can be invested.”

According to the research report of Solarbuzz, the actual amount of PV market in China will exceed 1.6GW in 2011, which is more than 230% higher than that in 2010. The implementation of the on-grid tariff subsidy policy is considered to promote the explosive growth of China's PV projects. In Qinghai and other places, the on-grid tariff of 1.15 yuan/kWh has already brought about 10% or more internal rate of return to some power stations. For the domestic new installed capacity in 2012, the consensus forecast in the industry is 2.5GW-3GW, and there are optimists who have raised the figure to more than 5GW.

Because of the use of the product, where is the installation, where is the inverter market? Solar Power (300274.SZ) is currently the largest supplier of photovoltaic inverters in China. In the first half of this year, its operating income reached 292 million yuan, an increase of 65.63% over the same period of 2010, and its domestic market accounted for nearly 80%. A research report of Everbright Securities predicts that by 2015, the domestic photovoltaic inverter market will exceed 5 billion yuan.

Capacity is actively expanding. Part of the fund raised by Sunshine Power IPO is used for 1GW capacity expansion. Nanjing Guanya Power's capacity will reach 1.5 GW in 2012. According to the announcement from Kstar (002518.SZ), 720 new inverters with more than 100kW will be added in 2012, and 15600 or less will be added with 10kW or less.

"This industry has already begun to be abused."

Although the market seems to be on the rise, concerns have arisen.

A person who has worked in the inverter industry for nine years told reporters that the domestic inverter market has been over-produced. "The reason why 'indiscriminate' is because the photovoltaic inverter market is a mixed bag and there is a lot of silt. There are more than N in the domestic market. Many of the companies that have heard of the company are companies that have just been established. Buy a ready-made program. How can such companies guarantee quality and service?"

How many companies in the country currently produce photovoltaic inverters? According to the statistics of the National Quality Certification Center, about 53 companies have passed their certification. According to statistics, there are currently a total of 135 PV inverter manufacturers in China, the vast majority of which have entered this field since 2007, and some are still in pre-research and prototype production stages.

One of the important reasons why there are so many new visitors is that the technical threshold is not high. The principle technology of photovoltaic inverters is essentially different from the power electronics technology used in general power supplies. A UPS (uninterrupted power supply) industry official told reporters that there are even undergraduate graduates who have worked in the power industry for only five years, and have switched to a small inverter manufacturer as a technical director.

Companies such as KSTAR and Delta have entered the field of photovoltaic inverters based on previous UPS production experience. Large-scale integrated electrical industrial groups such as Siemens, Schneider, and Nuri Group also came in. Huawei (Weibo) is also recruiting talents to carry out pre-research and development of photovoltaic inverter industry. "Huawei is very clear that this line is in the end the ability to market channels, as well as the cash flow behind." A person who had contacted his photovoltaic inverter business said.

In the current market, Sun Power, Nanjing Guanya and other companies rely on years of experience and channels accumulated in the industry. XJ Electric, NARI and other companies have accumulated abundant resources in the power sector. However, in the survey conducted by brokers in last month's acceptance of securities companies, Sunpower executives said that it is more frightening than the fact that large companies form monopolies in the industry that the products are “shanzhai”. “The industry needs someone to be professional, to concentrate, to make a difference, and to grow. , strong, fast, especially the rapid update of products."

In 2011, the domestic PV inverter production capacity is approximately 3.3 GW, and the global production capacity will exceed 55 GW. Together with the expansion expectation, the oversupply of the entire industry is likely to exist for a long time. At present, the utilization rate of the entire industry is about 40%. According to IMS Research's research report, the global photovoltaic inverter market experienced a year-on-year decline of more than 20% in the third quarter of this year, and the large international companies that had reduced the original market also turned their attention to China. After the market and technical preparation period, photovoltaic inverters will usher in real competition - will it be like photovoltaic components, everyone will embrace them, and eventually die, forming a new pattern?

Many industry professionals interviewed gave affirmative answers. In terms of price, Sunlight's average price of its products in the first half of this year has fallen by about 20% year-on-year. By the second half of the year, the price of high-power transformerless inverters has fallen to around RMB 0.8/watt, a further drop of 10% from the first half of the year. , GF Securities analyst Han Ling predicted that next year's inverter market price decline in the range of 10% -15%.

Changes in the market structure may not take too long. Everbright Securities believes that 2012-2013 will be the window for industry reshuffle, and many smaller companies will gradually withdraw from the industry.

Counter-current challenges Since there is not a large number of Chinese companies entering the global PV inverter market, this sector can maintain a high profit margin. Then, will the Chinese industry, which has become a mixed bag, soon be a headache for competitors around the world?

At present, the world's top five suppliers - SMA, Fronius, Kaco, PowerOne, Sputnik, account for about 60% of the global market share, China's PV companies have not yet reached the top ten, and Sunlight's share of the global market is only 2%. Just four years after the creation of new energy sources, Yu and New Energy began appearing at European trade shows last year. In February this year, they declared that they were among the top five inverter manufacturers in the world. However, in July this year, the European Photovoltaic magazine “Photon” evaluated two photovoltaic inverter products of Acer and New Energy. The results were disappointing—the conversion efficiency was significantly lower than the parameters provided by the manufacturer, unstable, and frequently appeared. Mistakes.

Chinese companies have ambitions, but it is difficult because it is not a battery, but an electrical device. More and more Chinese project owners and system integrators have started to enter overseas markets. They may prefer to choose domestic products because domestic PV inverters are about 60% lower, but at least at present, overseas power station projects are extremely Use less domestic PV inverters. Cao Yu, Frost & Sullivan Energy Power Consulting Manager, said: "On the foreign market, quality is the first vitality, and domestic products still have a long way to go in this regard."

On November 9th, the “Interim Provisions on the Grid Management of Photovoltaic Power Plants in Northwest China” issued by the Northwest Electric Regulatory Bureau, “The PV inverter must have low voltage ride-through capability to ensure that the grid voltage is as low as 20% for 1 second without interruption. Sunlight Power said in a survey that in October the State Grid Corporation conducted a low-voltage ride-through test for all solar power plants. "Many small and medium-sized enterprises have fallen."

The challenge also comes from the industry chain. The capabilities of domestic PV inverter manufacturers mainly consist of architecture and parameter design, and most of the production materials need to be purchased externally. Among them, high-power semiconductor devices such as IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) modules rely on a few manufacturers such as Infineon, SEMIKRON, and Fuji. "Because of strong demand, companies such as Infineon are very strong. At least six months in advance," Cao Yu told him. In his view, the stable and sufficient supply of upstream is a big problem for inverter companies. " The more basic component components are tested, the more localized products have shouted for so many years.

In the face of power plant project owners dominated by the five major power generation groups, the bargaining power of inverter companies is also not strong. Sunlight Power sells 400MW of equipment to China Guangdong Nuclear Power this year, accounting for half of the annual shipments. Relying on a single customer in this way is likely to encounter challenges on account issues and other issues.

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Sunhe Lighting Co., Ltd , http://www.dgledlight.com

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