SMA Solar: EU restrictions on Chinese solar inverters will boost European suppliers

The European Union's ban on public funding for utility-scale inverters made by "high-risk countries" is set to shift the market toward European suppliers, according to?SMA Solar?s chief executive?on Thursday. The European Union's 27-country bloc imposed the ban on May 1, primarily affecting Chinese products. They cited fears that inverters connected to the internet from countries they deemed "high-risk", could be used by those countries to disrupt Europe’s power grid.

Jurgen Reinert, CEO of SMA Solar, said that "roughly a fifth" of the larger projects are EU-funded. The restrictions on China, North Korea and Russia will also help SMA Solar gain a 10% share of the utility-scale solar market in Europe.

In recent years, Chinese manufacturers led by Huawei and Sungrow supplied 70% of Europe's power inverters, leaving the region dependent on foreign equipment to supply a rapidly growing share of its electricity. According to calculations, based on the current levels of deployment, an EU-wide ban could affect at least 14 Gigawatts in new solar capacity.

Reinert predicted that the situation will become more certain by the beginning of 2027.

He said that the German supplier of photovoltaics and battery storage has already held "lots" of discussions with new customers, who had previously purchased inverters from Chinese firms.

Reinert stated that SMA Solar had reduced its dependency on China. It currently sources between 2% and 4%?of?components? for its large-scale?inverters. Reinert also said that he sees a limited risk of disruptions in the supply chain from possible retaliatory actions. Danny Callaghan, Gdansk reporter; Milla Nissi Prussak, editor

(source: Reuters)