Sungrow Celebrates 1GW Of Solar Inverter Capacity In Australia

Solar inverter and energy storage manufacturer Sungrow has reached a significant milestone here in Australia – 1GW of inverter capacity deployment.

The company has come a long way since its very humble beginnings. Sungrow was founded in 1997 by Cao Renxian, who was a professor at China’s Hefei University of Technology. It was quite a risk to ditch his teaching job, but one that paid off – and in a very big way. He remains Chairman/President of Sungrow today.

From Bit To Major Player

The company’s total revenue in 1998 was USD $87,000 from a single sale. Last year it turned over more than $1.9 billion, 21,839 times the 1998 figure. More than 120 GW of Sungrow inverter capacity had been installed worldwide as at June this year and according to analysis firm Wood Mackenzie, Sungrow was ranked no.2 for global inverter shipments in 2019 – behind Huawei and ahead of SMA.

Chinese solar inverter manufacturers have come and gone over the past couple of decades – possibly hundreds of them – so staying in the business for more than 20 years in what has evolved into a very competitive sector is quite a feat.

Sungrow In Australia

The company established a presence in Australia in 2012. Sungrow inverters were well received here given their specifications, track record to date and comparatively low price. We’ve collected more than 800 Sungrow inverter reviews and ratings on SolarQuotes over the years from Australian customers, and they’ve generally been quite positive. Sungrow has averaged a 4.5-star rating over the whole time and 4.6 stars over the last 6-, 12-, 24- and 36-month periods – so it’s been very consistent.

It hasn’t been all sunshine and puppies for Sungrow in Australia though. Back in January this year, a Brisbane-based engineer tapped the company on the shoulder regarding security flaws he discovered in Sungrow’s SH5K-20 hybrid inverter. Sungrow denied a problem existed initially, but subsequently acknowledged it, shipped a firmware update fix and rewarded the engineer.

The company has been on the front-foot locally in other aspects though. Through a partnership with Solar Analytics, it was among the first to be able to offer smart inverter solutions complying with hastily-legislated South Australian regulations and protocols for new solar power systems.

Beyond offering solar inverters for the Australian market, Sungrow batteries are also available here and while we’ve had far fewer customer ratings on their batteries, they’ve averaged 4.5 stars to date.

The 2020 Sungrow Australia 1 GW Celebration will be held virtually on December 16 via Zoom. It’s a bit of a mystery what will be happening at the event at this point, but if you’re keen on being a part of it you can register here.

In other recent news from the company, Sungrow announced last week 2 GW of its 110kW SG110CX inverters had been shipped to Vietnam for its rooftop solar market in 2020. Sungrow claims to have captured market shares of 45% and 25% in the rooftop and utility-scale sector respectively in Vietnam. Early this year Sungrow claimed a worldwide market share of more than 15% and late in 2019, the company said it had captured 15% of the Australian residential solar market.