Sungrow Power Supply

Sector

Energy

Chinese name

阳光电源

Programme

Day 5 · 15 Oct 2026 · Hefei

Sungrow Power Supply (阳光电源), based in Hefei, makes the electronics that convert power from solar panels and batteries and feed it into the grid. It shares first place with Huawei in Wood Mackenzie's global ranking of inverter manufacturers (Solar Magazine) and supplied the batteries for the largest battery park in the Benelux, in Vilvoorde. After a record 2025, revenue and profit are falling in 2026, while Europe is tightening its rules on Chinese inverters. The China Business Mission 2026 delegation had Sungrow on its programme on day 5.

What does an inverter do, and what does Sungrow make?

Solar panels and batteries produce direct current; the grid runs on alternating current. The inverter converts one into the other and continuously regulates the power. It is the smartest part of an installation, and also the part that is connected to the internet.

For almost thirty years Sungrow has stuck to that one technology, power electronics, and applied it to new markets: battery systems for the grid and for businesses, wind turbine converters, EV chargers, power supplies for hydrogen electrolysers and, since 2026, power systems for AI data centres. A subsidiary develops solar and wind farms itself. In 2025 the group posted revenue of 89.2 billion yuan (+15%) and net profit of 13.5 billion yuan (+22%), according to its annual report. For the first time, batteries brought in more than inverters.

That shift matters. Battery storage grew by 49 per cent in 2025 and, at 36.5 per cent, earned a higher gross margin than inverters. That year Sungrow shipped 143 GW of solar inverters and 43 GWh of battery storage.

From university lecturer to market leader

Founder Cao Renxian (曹仁贤) was a lecturer at Hefei University of Technology when he bet on solar power in 1997. He started with savings and loans totalling 500,000 yuan, in two small rooms next to a bathhouse. "Apart from me, nobody supported my resignation," he later told Jiemian. In the early years the company lived off emergency power supplies and custom power units.

In 2003 Sungrow launched China's first grid-connected solar inverter, and in 2011 it listed in Shenzhen. The course stayed the same: whatever did not fit renewable energy was dropped. Cao summed it up as "what you do first is tactics; what you do not do is strategy". Hefei remained its home, a city known for its hands-on industrial policy. You can read more in our portrait of Hefei.

Batteries at record scale, including in Belgium

The flagship is the PowerTitan, a container in which battery cells, inverter and liquid cooling form a single block. In November 2024 Sungrow deliberately set fire to a 20 MWh installation, witnessed by certification body DNV, to show that the fire did not spread to containers 15 centimetres away. Fire safety is one of the biggest questions in permitting battery parks.

In Vilvoorde, just north of Brussels, ENGIE built a 200 MW, 800 MWh battery park with 320 PowerTitan units. It was officially opened on 26 January 2026 in the presence of Flemish Minister-President Matthias Diependaele (Belga). According to ENGIE, a full battery can supply 100,000 households for four hours. Elsewhere the scale is larger still: 7.8 GWh in Saudi Arabia, fully connected since late 2025, and a 7.5 GWh contract for a Masdar solar plant in Abu Dhabi designed to deliver power day and night.

New since July 2026 is EnerNeo, a transformer built from semiconductors that converts medium voltage directly into 800-volt direct current for AI servers. The range for households is growing too: the all-in-one PowerHarbor system has been on sale in the Benelux since September 2026.

Why the numbers are falling in 2026

After the records of 2025 came the setback. In the first three quarters of 2026 revenue fell by 26 per cent to 48.9 billion yuan and net profit by 44 per cent to 6.6 billion yuan, according to the figures published on 30 October (EnergyTrend). In the third quarter alone, profit dropped by 68 per cent.

The cause lies mainly in China. Domestic revenue roughly halved: demand for solar power at home weakened and, by its own account, Sungrow turned down loss-making projects. Exchange-rate losses also weighed. Markets outside China now account for almost three quarters of revenue. In the first half Sungrow did ship a record 25 GWh of battery storage, 28 per cent more than a year earlier, but at lower prices (Energy-Storage.news). The gross margin held up remarkably well at 33.5 per cent over nine months.

Europe: a factory in Poland and a political question

Sungrow employs more than 900 people in Europe, with its headquarters in Munich; the Benelux is served from Amsterdam. According to Wood Mackenzie it was Europe's largest supplier of battery systems in 2025. In February 2026 it announced its first European factory, in Wałbrzych, Poland: 230 million euros, around 400 jobs and an annual capacity of 20 GW of inverters and 12.5 GWh of storage (ESS News). Production is due to start in 2027.

The factory is also an answer to a political question. Inverters can be controlled remotely, and Europe fears misuse in a crisis. Since 2025 Lithuania has banned remote access to larger installations from countries it considers hostile. Since May 2026 the European Commission has excluded EU funding, including through the European Investment Bank, for projects using inverters from suppliers in high-risk countries such as China; battery system inverters are covered too (ESS News). The Commission kept the 1 November 2026 deadline despite calls for a delay (Cleanthinking).

For Belgian businesses this is a practical matter. Installers have known Sungrow's hybrid inverters and home batteries for years, and large battery parks are being built right now. Anyone investing or seeking finance now has to weigh where the inverter comes from. How other Chinese companies are making that move is covered on our page about Chinese companies coming to Europe.

Trust becomes a product feature

Sungrow shows how a Chinese industrial company grows big: one core technology, patiently extended to new markets, with the scale of the Chinese home market as a springboard. It also shows where the limit now lies. In Europe, efficiency and price no longer decide on their own. Where the data is stored, who can intervene remotely and where a device is built have become specifications as well. Anyone doing business in China or buying Chinese technology is wise to ask those questions up front and get the answers in writing.