Photovoltaic inverter is the core power regulation device of the photovoltaic system, which accounts for 10-15% of the system cost, and has a high technical content. Currently, the global leader SMA has a market share of 44%, and the four companies in the second tier occupy the total. 32% of the market, and the rest more than 150 companies split the rest of the market. Market research company IMS emphasized in its survey results that the photovoltaic inverter market experienced a shift from long-term supply shortages to severe overcapacity in 2010. According to the market research company, as of January this year, the fourth quarter of 2010 and the beginning of the new year's inventory has reached a record high level.
IMS Research also found that the global photovoltaic inverter market grew by 140% in 2010, mainly driven by core European markets such as Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic and France. Despite the industry's concerns about overcapacity, the global PV inverter market can still reach US$8.5 billion in 2014, with an average annual increase of up to 25%. In 2010, the output of inverters more than doubled to more than 30 GW. Given that more than 30 top suppliers have increased production plans, the output in 2011 is expected to increase by another 40%. Looking at the current form The suppliers were extremely reluctant to stage the shortage of supply in 2009, making it unable to meet the demands of customers when the market rose sharply again. In 2010, the biggest driver of growth for the entire industry was the small commercial market from Germany. The newly installed capacity has reached 4 GW. However, market forecasts indicate that the largest new installations will be from the United States, Canada and China. . At the same time, emerging markets such as the United Kingdom and India will also bring great potential opportunities for industrial development.
It is understood that the US Department of Energy (DoE) has allocated US$2.3 million to SolarBridge Technology for the development of low-cost solar photovoltaic micro-inverters. SolarBridge said that the company will use this grant to accelerate the development of ultra-low-cost solar photovoltaic micro-inverters and universal mechanisms for connecting power conversion electronics to solar cell components. Also joining the inverter market this year is Germany's Bosch. According to news, the Bosch company from Stuttgart, Germany, has planned to start mass production of photovoltaic inverters. Bosch spokesperson Andreas Kempf has confirmed that the company established a subsidiary in January and its scope of business involves inverters. Emerson announced recently that it has obtained Orders for photovoltaic inverters from leading PV developers in Europe Emerson will provide utility-type inverters in two adjacent solar photovoltaic projects at the EuroProject in Villaperuccio, Sardinia, Italy. The order's financial information, Emerson's inverter power supply is to replace the DC power supply in the array of solar arrays into AC power, and directly input into the power grid.The total installed capacity of the two photovoltaic power stations in Sardinia can reach 10MW, and at the same time, it will be adopted. Emerson's variable frequency control and monitoring management system, on October 18, 2011, at the 2011 US International Solar Energy Exhibition (SPI) in Dallas, Texas, announced that they will use BYD's solar panels and Inverters to build 1.2 megawatts of solar energy in the Northeast and Pacific Ocean This is the first cooperation between the two companies, including the provision of solar energy equipment for some schools and commercial buildings. By the first quarter of 2012, the overall scale will be expanded to 10MW.
The domestic inverter market is also more optimistic than the industry. The installed capacity of domestic photovoltaic power generation has entered a stage of rapid growth. After the national policy is clear, wind power has doubled for several years. China's photovoltaic power generation market has officially owned its own “After the on-grid tariff policy, replicating this type of blowout development will be a highly probable event. Starting in 2011, it will be the peak period for the development of grid-connected photovoltaic power generation in China. Industry insiders expect that the new installed capacity of photovoltaics in China in 2011 and 2012 will be In 2010, only about 400 MW was soared to 1.5 GW and over 3 GW, which drastically increased the demand for grid-connected PV inverters.At present, the domestic inverter market currently has many advantages. First, the price of inverters is relatively stable. The interest rate level can be guaranteed in the future, although the inverter price has also declined slightly this year as the photovoltaic market is sluggish, but the decline rate is relatively small and basically stable. In early July, the average inverter price was 0.239 U.S. dollars per watt. At the beginning of October, the average price still remained at 0.235 U.S. dollars per watt, and the decline in the second quarter was only 1.67%, mainly due to the price of photovoltaic inverter products. The fast sell-off phase has passed, and as a high-end power electronic product that requires continuous R&D investment, the space for compressed gross margins of its products is quite limited, and the price drop of products will gradually slow down. The future cost reduction will mainly come from design improvements and The localization of components and components Secondly, participating companies have low barriers to entry, are easy to get started, are difficult to do, and are more difficult to make bigger.As a photovoltaic inverter has just emerged in China, relatively low entry barriers really attract Many domestic companies participate in R&D and production, but product parameters and quality can obtain extensive institutional certifications, customer approvals, and even fewer companies that achieve mass shipments, and the same is true in the global context.Furthermore, domestic inverter market share The rate is gradually increasing, and photovoltaic inverters, as products with higher requirements for long-term operation stability, have deeper technical accumulation, and are able to take the lead in gaining a certain scale of stable operating performance, they will have the opportunity to become bigger and stronger, and marginal enterprises. Will soon be eliminated by the market; domestic start-up companies are expected to use the domestic PV installation market The start-up gained valuable operating experience and laid a solid foundation for the future to enter the international market.
The high profitability of PV inverter industry in the fourth quarter of 2011 shows that although the industry suffers from price reduction due to the recent oversupply, inverter suppliers currently enjoy the highest gross profit margin in the industry. Although inverters account for only a small part of the hardware costs of photovoltaic systems, in 2011, inverter suppliers created profits that accounted for 17% of the entire industry. One of the reasons why the inverter industry's profit margin is so high is that Chinese suppliers have not made big gains in this market so far. However, in the component market, Chinese suppliers accounted for half of total shipments and revenue, and in 2010 China's brand inverters accounted for only 3% of industry revenue. However, this situation may change now, and the Chinese local market has begun to rise. This year, the Chinese market will install more than 1.5GW of photovoltaic systems. Most of the projects will use domestic inverters. Although profit in the fourth quarter of 2011 rose slightly, IMS Research predicts that the industry outlook in 2012 is not optimistic, and profits will further decline, and will drop to 10.4% in the first quarter of next year.