The developments on the market, not only in Europe, have been very challenging this year for the whole PV industry. Supply chain issues have affected everyone in the market lately and Sungrow is no different, but due to the size of operation Sungrow has been able to mitigate most of the negatives involved. Sungrow is one of the world’s largest manufacturer of inverters and delivered 47 GW last year across the world, showcasing the purchasing power of Sungrow. The company can look back to very long-lasting relationships with their suppliers, which is extremely beneficial in these difficult times. The inverter manufacturer states to have very good availabilities of 1-phase PV inverters, 1-phase and 3-phase Hybrid inverters, as well as Residential Batteries.
Which actions have been undertaken to improve the situation?
Sungrow has been working really hard over the past months to ensure good availability for many of their products, particularly for the Residential market in Europe. When it comes to logistical issues Meng Yang, Distribution Director Europe has a clear opinion: “Flexibility and adaptability are the keys here. If you’re willing and able to adapt, there is always a way to overcome these kinds of issues. First of all, we’ve been utilising different ports in China, and by doing that we’ve found the fastest route to get our products to Europe. And despite the ongoing situation in Ukraine and Russia making it difficult, we’ve also been shipping from China straight to Germany via the New Silk Road. This has actually worked quite well for us so far, despite a few minor delays”. With this strategy Sungrow has managed to have nearly all their Residential products on stock. “Especially the 1-phase and 3-phase Solution, a combination of Hybrid inverter and Residential Battery is an essential product for the European market currently, as we are dealing with extremely high energy costs”, comments Meng Yang, Distribution Director Europe.
Sungrow is working with a strong network of distributors all over Europe to make sure the products are available to installers. But another big challenge in the market is that there aren't enough installers available to keep up with demand. That even if installers can get their hands on solar products, they don’t have capacities to fulfil the installations. What is Sungrow doing to ease this situation? “Unfortunately, the lack of installers is an issue we’ve been experiencing lately. It’s a general problem of the market right now, with a lot of different factors contributing. But thankfully our Residential products are inherently designed to minimise this issue as much as possible, as we’ve specifically designed our products for easy installation. There’s no need to open them when installing, and all connectors are externally located and follow the push-click-go principle, so it’s a super quick process. Some of our products even require fewer people to install them compared to many other brands on the market. A specific example is our Residential Battery. As it’s a modular system, it can easily be installed by one person, whereas most other brands sometimes require two installers for batteries because they’re so heavy. There’s also no wiring required between the modules in our batteries, so it is super easy and quick. Furthermore, we’ve launched a new streamlined commissioning process that involves fewer steps in the plant creation itself and provides the installer with the possibility to do commissioning fully remote. So, this will save them even more time, and money on-site”, says Meng Yang.
Sustainability is one of Sungrow’s focus topics
Apart from all steps which have already been undertaken to improve the current situation, Sungrow is also taking further actions to increase sustainability during the production process. “We’ve already committed to the goal of using 100 % renewable energy for production by 2028, as part of the RE100 initiative. We’ve also become a member of EP100 in order to optimize our energy productivity. We’ve also joined several other initiatives aimed at reducing our carbon footprint and committed to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals”. Further details may be found in Sungrow’s Sustainability Report.
