At The Smarter E Europe event – recently held in Munich, Germany – Growatt shared insights on the European market. It reports a slowdown in the residential segment in Central Europe due to lower demand, but Growatt VP Lisa Zhang said she expects more growth in the commercial and industrial (C&I) solar and storage sectors.
Amidst faltering market conditions, Growatt plans to increase and decrease system sizes at the same time. The company’s strategy is to shift its focus toward C&I storage applications, while tapping Germany’s rapidly increasing do-it-yourelf solar market. Lisa Zhang, vice president of the inverter manufacturer, met with pv magazine during The Smarter E trade fair in June in Munich, Germany.
Zhang said Growatt has shipped about 20 GW of inverters in the past 12 months. Despite unexpected growth in South Asian and Latin American markets such as Mexico, Pakistan, and China, she noted that the European market growth has lagged behind expectations. She said that the Italian and UK markets are slowing due to falling electricity prices, the phasing out of subsidies, and macroeconomic factors like high inflation and high interest rates.
Growatt is entering new markets, with the company recently obtaining certification for the Japanese market. Against a backdrop of high electricity prices, a growing number of businesses are choosing to combine solar and storage to power their operations.
Zhang said she expects this trend to continue in Europe. C&I energy storage in Europe is growing rapidly, supported by policies across various countries. Examples include Italy’s energy community subsidies and dynamic electricity pricing in the Nordic region. These measures allow businesses to lower electricity costs while earning additional revenue through energy arbitrage, significantly enhancing investment returns.
The company has released a new C&I storage system. The hybrid inverter product, with an AC output power rating of 30 kW to 100 kW, supports multiple off-grid parallel operations to achieve a matching battery capacity of 30 kWh to 600 kWh. The solar and battery storage system can be used for self-consumption, peak shaving, time-of-use tariffs, creating a microgrid, and delivering backup power supply. The company said small business owners could see their electricity costs drop as a result.
The company is now seeing great interest in its balcony storage system, which has gained widespread popularity in Germany. “For us, it is important to get a foothold in that market because it is also a gateway into the residential sector,” said Zhang.
Growatt has also developed a new storage system for balcony solar systems. The NOAH 2000 features 2 kWh of capacity, with 1,800 W on the AC side. Two separate MPP-trackers optimize power yield from the modules. The whole system is IP65-protected and can be used outdoors. And the battery can be used for both new and retrofit balcony PV systems.
In Germany, although the market for such systems is expanding, it remains relatively limited, with the overall market volume still small. But Zhang said that customers who buy balcony systems might be compelled to expand to larger rooftop systems in the near future.
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