According to the latest “2013 Global PV Inverter Market†report released by IMS Research, it is estimated that the global solar PV inverter market revenue will decline by 5% to US$6.7 billion in 2013.
Although the PV inverter shipments increased to 34.2 GW in 2013, the average price of global inverters will fall by 11% this year, leading to a decline in the inverter market revenue, which poses a major challenge to inverter suppliers. They are trying their best to deal with shrinking profit margins and increasing competition. Even so, for suppliers, there are still several major growth opportunities in certain areas, which will help the inverter market to recover in 2014 and recover double-digit growth rates.
The price decline in 2013 will involve all the power links, of which three-phase series inverter prices are expected to decline by 15% to 20%.
2013: Huge price pressure
Affected by many factors, current inverter suppliers are facing huge price pressures. Although there have been several large-scale mergers and acquisitions in the inverter market recently, due to the expansion of existing and emerging inverter suppliers' own share in the photovoltaic market, the inverter supplier structure continued to show a differentiation trend in 2012. In 2012, the world's top ten inverter suppliers accounted for only 57% of the global market revenue, and in 2012 accounted for 66% of the global market revenue.
“The current industry is still relatively divided,†said Cormac Gilligan, market analyst at IHS Solar Inverter. “In the increasingly declining market, strong suppliers are competing with each other for market share. Demand in many markets fell sharply in 2012. In 2010, Europe In the Middle East and North Africa region, which accounts for about 82% of global inverter shipments, it is expected that the proportion of shipments in the region will shrink to 37% in 2013, resulting in further intensification of competition among large suppliers. They are most vulnerable to market weakness. .
In addition, the decline in the average price of global inverters has also been driven by regional shifts in inverter demand, that is, markets that have shifted from Europe to China to more intense price competition. In China, the average inverter price is already at a relatively low level, and in 2013 China will become the largest market for inverter shipments. As the market is dominated by low-cost central inverters, prices are expected to drop further to $0.09 per watt.
Demand for high-power inverters is growing strongly. Generally speaking, their price per watt is low, which will also bring down the price of global inverters, and not just in the Chinese market. Many large-scale markets will continue to focus on utility-scale photovoltaic power generation systems, and the shipment of large inverters will therefore rise accordingly.
Gilligan said that with the development of large-scale utility-scale projects in many regions such as China, the United States and India, it is expected that the global shipment of three-phase high-power inverters will increase from 41% to 46% in 2013. The change will also lead to a further drop in the average price of the global inverter.
Japanese High Power Inverter Has High Growth Potential
Although global inverter prices are under pressure, inverter suppliers still have many opportunities, especially in market segments. IHS predicts that with the installation of utility-level projects, inverters with three-phase 250kW and higher power will grow from 50 million U.S. dollars in 2012 to 290 million U.S. dollars in 2013.
At present, the Japanese inverter market is dominated by domestic suppliers, but the surge in demand for central inverters will bring new opportunities to rapidly established Western suppliers. However, this will be a short-term trend, and the inverter market will decline in 2014 and 2015 after the initial completion of the proposed project and the availability of suitable land for development.
US low-power tandem inverter market will double
In addition, as the inverter suppliers broaden their product types and provide decentralized solutions to customers looking for alternative solutions for central inverters in commercial systems, the US three-phase series inverter market revenue will be realized by 2013. Doubled, slightly over 100 million U.S. dollars.
Gilligan pointed out that customers are demanding more and more. They like to install fast, long-term standard warranty of 10 years in some cases, and inverters that can be mounted on the wall to maximize the project area. The main reason is to promote the application of three-phase series inverters.
Innovation is still the key to inverter manufacturers
As inverter prices continue to be under pressure in 2013, suppliers are becoming more innovative in how to save costs and create value for customers. Many suppliers have released new inverters with advanced features or new designs. For them, inverter manufacturers have released the latest outdoor and packaged products to help customers cut labor, installation costs, and the corresponding costs of operations and maintenance.
At present, manufacturers continue to introduce inverters with rated DC voltages of up to 1000V or more, resulting in longer series and reduced DC cables.
Gilligan added that although the upfront cost of inverters with DC voltages of 1000 Vdc or higher is high, there are still other advantages for customers, such as reducing BOS costs of balancing systems and increasing energy harvesting.
With prices falling further, it is expected that 2013 will be another challenging year for inverter suppliers, but there are still opportunities in major PV markets, such as the United States, Japan, and China. In addition, by 2014, inverter revenue may rebound significantly and rise by 11% to reach US$7.3 billion, which will give the inverter suppliers a bit of relief.
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