The latest global PV installer survey by Germany’s EUPD Research offers a hint of the solar brands which installers, mostly based in Europe, gravitate toward. This year’s report also ventured to South Africa and considered mounting systems for the first time.
May 4, 2022 Max Hall
A peek into the results of the latest solar installer survey by EUPD Research appears to herald good news for Chinese PV manufacturer JA Solar and South Korean brand LG Electronics.
A slide show presentation published by the German market research business to promote the 14th edition of its “Global PV InstallerMonitor” report appears to indicate strong positions for JA Solar and Chinese peer Longi among the product ranges offered to customers by Polish installers in 2021. It said 24.5% of Dutch professionals bought from JA Solar, the third-highest proportion.
Satisfaction ratings
The top brand among installers in the Netherlands in 2021 was LG, from whom 27.4% of professionals bought, ahead of Chinese brand DMEGC, with 25.5%. The Korean products also topped satisfaction ratings among French installers in 2021.
Other insights from the glimpse given into the report included the fact Chinese brand Trina Solar was dominant in more than 20% of installer portfolios in Austria and Switzerland in 2021. Israeli brand SolarEdge and French peer Schneider Electric topped the popularity stakes for inverters among Italian installers, while domestic mounting system manufacturer Schletter was carried by 38% of German installers, ahead of second-placed compatriot IBC Solar, whose products were stocked by 17% of German professionals.
The report, which skews toward residential installation data, was compiled from telephone questionnaires completed by more than 1,500 installers in 12 nations, plus the state of California. It asked interviewees about mounting systems for the first time and included 100 respondents from South Africa, in another first for 2022.
Without specifying brands, EUPD Research reported 34 of the South African respondents stocked only one type of mounting system; 19 offered only one storage product brand; 18 had module ranges exclusively supplied by one company; and 15 only had one type of inverter.
Interestingly, it estimated South Africa reached around 4 GW of cumulative solar generation capacity in 2021, a much lower figure than the 5.72 GW estimated by the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) in its most recent set of global statistics.
By contrast, EUPD Research estimated South Africa added 741 MW of solar during 2021, compared with the 231 MW figure supplied by Irena, which shows the nation passed the 4 GW mark for total solar capacity in 2018.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: [email protected]
