Sungrow(阳光电源) has spent close to three decades turning power electronics into a global export business. Founded in Hefei in 1997, the company makes the inverters that sit between a solar array and the grid.

What a delegation should study here is not shipment volume alone, but where the engineering decisions are made that hold a decade-long lead, and how a Chinese equipment maker moves from selling abroad to manufacturing abroad.

That is what a Sungrow visit is built around: an exhibition hall that carries the history and the strategy, a walkthrough of the automated manufacturing areas, and a briefing that goes straight at the grid-side questions.

Key takeaways

  • The half-day programme covers the corporate exhibition hall, the automated manufacturing areas where inverters and storage equipment are built and tested, and a briefing with senior specialists.
  • Sungrow shipped 143 GW of solar inverters in 2025, holding the world number one position for a tenth year on a 25.2 per cent global share.
  • Storage is a business in its own right: 37.29 billion yuan of revenue in 2025,43 GWh shipped, 83 per cent delivered overseas.
  • Group revenue reached 89.18 billion yuan in 2025, up 14.55 per cent, with net profit of 13.46 billion yuan and research spending above 4.17 billion yuan.
  • Five lines — solar, wind, storage, charging and hydrogen — share one power conversion base, and themes are adjusted to your group.

Why visit Sungrow in Hefei?

Hefei has become one of the densest clean energy equipment clusters in China, and Sungrow is its anchor tenant. The company still designs, builds and tests its flagship products in the city, so a visiting team can examine the commercial and technical sides in one morning.

Sungrow earns 60.7 per cent of its revenue outside China, has built more than 50 GW of overseas capacity and, in 2025, took the world number one position in wind converter installed capacity. For teams studying that transition, the whole sequence sits in one organisation.

Inverters and storage systems look like commodity boxes from the outside, but competition sits in conversion efficiency, thermal design, grid-forming behaviour and software. Sungrow launched the world's first matrix inverter, PowerMatrix, in 2025, and was the first worldwide to complete field engineering verification of a wideband oscillation solution.

Hefei itself is part of the attraction: a morning with the inverter leader can be followed by battery makers, display manufacturers and electric vehicle plants in the same city. Solar value chain teams pair this visit with the upstream view at Tongwei's solar manufacturing base in Chengdu.

Company background

From a university laboratory to a listed group

Sungrow was founded in Hefei in 1997, when a small group of engineers turned power conversion research from a university laboratory into commercial products. The group is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange as 300274 and sells into more than 100 countries and regions.

Inverters, storage and the wider power electronics stack

Sungrow has led global solar inverter shipments for ten consecutive years, shipping 143 GW in 2025 on a global market share of 25.2 per cent. Storage revenue reached 37.29 billion yuan, up 49.4 per cent, on shipments of 43 GWh, up 48.28 per cent, with cumulative shipments past 93 GWh and a global storage share of 11.9 per cent. Wind converters also reached world number one by installed capacity.

Research, patents and financial standing

Revenue for 2025 was 89.18 billion yuan, up 14.55 per cent, with net profit attributable to shareholders of 13.46 billion yuan, up 21.97 per cent, and net operating cash flow of 16.92 billion yuan, up 40.18 per cent. The group spent more than 4.17 billion yuan on research, 40.1 per cent of its people work in research roles, and it holds 11,504 accumulated patents.

Inside the Sungrow site: what to look for

Reading the exhibition hall as a strategy document

The exhibition hall explains the business as a sequence of decisions rather than a product catalogue: the origins of the company, the storage build-out, the planning behind the clean energy portfolio and the zero-carbon site practices around the campus. It suits mixed groups best, because it presents the commercial logic rather than engineering detail.

Two questions are worth holding in mind. Which capability came first, and what had to be built before the export business could start? The order is visible: inverter technology first, an international sales and service footprint second, storage and wind on the same base. For delegations weighing their own diversification plans, that sequence matters more than any single product on display.

The manufacturing walkthrough: verification rather than assembly

The walkthrough moves through the automated areas where power conversion products and storage equipment are assembled and verified in volume. The informative observation is not how fast any station runs but how much of the process is built around proving reliability. Inverters and storage systems look like commodity boxes until you see the testing stages, the modular platforms and the component families shared between product lines.

Watch for where quality is decided. A failed unit in a remote solar farm costs more in service visits than the hardware itself, so the question is where in the flow a defect is caught and how far back it can be traced.

The briefing: the grid-side conversation

The briefing with senior specialists is the most technical part of the programme and the most valuable for utilities, developers and engineering teams. It covers conversion efficiency, above 99 per cent in the flagship products, grid-forming behaviour, and the questions that follow once inverter-based resources dominate new capacity: stability, curtailment and storage dispatch.

The 2025 product cycle gives the discussion a concrete edge. PowerMatrix, described by the company as the world's first matrix inverter, rethinks the internal power architecture of a central inverter, and the company was the first worldwide to complete field engineering verification of a wideband oscillation solution, a grid stability problem that appears when large inverter-based resources connect to weak networks. Ask how that verification was done.

What a visit covers

09:30–10:00 (30 minutes): New Energy Exhibition Hall Tour Visit Content: Corporate development history, core technologies, and global layout (with a focus on the technological advantages of photovoltaic inverters and energy storage systems, achievements in integrated photovoltaic and energy storage solutions, and global delivery capabilities).

10:00–10:40 (40 minutes): Intelligent Manufacturing Production Line Tour (Note: The production area involves core processes; photography is generally prohibited, and factory confidentiality regulations must be observed.) Visit Content: Intelligent production base for inverters and energy storage equipment, with on-site observation of automated production lines, precision assembly, and quality control processes.

10:40–11:30 (50 minutes): Executive Roundtable and Exchange Exchange Content: Sharing and discussion on integrated photovoltaic and energy storage solutions, global delivery, industry trends, and the company's experience in global operations.

Content, sequence and timing can be tailored to the delegation's priorities, and the final scope is confirmed with the site during planning, because the areas the host opens depend on production and visitor planning.

What each part of the morning is designed to show

The exhibition hall carries the history and the strategy, the walkthrough concentrates on scale, testing and quality control, and the briefing covers how the group is organised outside China, how it selects markets and how storage projects are structured.

What different teams take away

Energy and utility teams come for the grid-side conversation. Inverter-based resources now dominate new capacity in many markets, and the questions that follow concern stability, curtailment and storage dispatch. A briefing from engineers who have worked on wideband oscillation and grid-forming control settles questions that published material leaves open.

Manufacturing and operations teams focus on the walkthrough. Modest gains in yield, test time or field failure rates decide the economics of power electronics, and seeing how a high-volume, high-mix site organises testing and traceability gives visitors concrete comparison points with their own plants.

Policy, park and investment teams take a different route through the same material. Sungrow grew inside Hefei and now sells into more than 100 countries and regions, so it is a working case study in cluster building, supply chain localisation and export development.

Research and university groups ask about the path from laboratory work to industrial product. The company's own history starts in a university laboratory, and the discussion of conversion efficiency, storage round-trip performance and patent accumulation gives researchers a realistic sense of the distance between a paper and a product.

Strategy and general management groups get the least technical version of the visit. The interest lies in how five lines share one technology base, how a company keeps a ten-year lead, and how management balances a domestic market against a business earning most of its revenue abroad.

How to arrange a Sungrow visit

Arrangements are handled end to end by our team. We confirm the date, collect the profile of your group and what each participant wants from the morning, and pass that to the company so the briefing and discussion are prepared for your sector. Interpretation, local transport, meeting space and supporting materials are coordinated in the same plan.

Standard practice is to allow at least 30 days of notice, because the site's approval route asks for more than three weeks and visitor slots are limited. A group of 10–20 participants is usually the best fit; we plan around your preferred dates. We charge per group, so larger groups usually offer better value per person. Individuals and smaller groups are welcome to enquire at a higher per-person rate.

Combine with other Hefei visits

Hefei's industrial base is convenient for pairing, because battery, display, electric vehicle and computer manufacturing sit within a short drive of each other. For energy and storage groups the natural companion is the Gotion High-Tech visit in Hefei, covering battery cell manufacturing, the Volkswagen partnership and solid-state progress, so the two pages together cover both halves of the storage supply chain in one city. Teams interested in battery industrialisation extend to the CATL company visit in Ningde, and groups wanting a software and artificial intelligence counterpoint can add an iFlytek visit in Hefei.

Practical notes

  • The programme runs about three hours, typically in the morning. Afternoon and full-day formats can be arranged when you want to add a company.
  • Standard notice is at least 30 days, and the site's approval route asks for more than three weeks, so earlier confirmation gives more choice of dates.
  • Groups are normally formed from 10 participants upwards, and a single batch is kept to 40 people, with larger delegations split.
  • Photography is allowed in the exhibition hall; in the areas where core processes and equipment parameters are visible it is not permitted, and visitors sign a confidentiality note beforehand.
  • English interpretation is arranged for the briefing and the discussion, and technical vocabulary on power conversion and grid stability is prepared with the interpreters beforehand.
  • Hefei is served by high-speed rail from Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing, and local transport between venues is part of the itinerary.

Questions before a Sungrow visit

What does a Sungrow visit in Hefei cover? The half-day programme combines the corporate exhibition hall, a walkthrough of the automated manufacturing areas where inverters and storage equipment are built and tested, and a briefing with senior specialists.

Where does the visit take place? At Sungrow's site in Hefei, Anhui province. Meeting points and the areas the host opens on the day are confirmed in writing during planning.

How large is Sungrow? It is the world's largest solar inverter maker, with 2025 revenue of 89.18 billion yuan, net profit of 13.46 billion yuan and 11,504 accumulated patents.

What makes Sungrow competitive? Power conversion technology is the base, and the five lines of solar, wind, storage, charging and hydrogen all draw on it. A footprint covering more than 100 countries and regions, with 60.7 per cent of revenue earned overseas, is the other half.

What is the most distinctive thing to see on site? The verification stages in the manufacturing areas. Inverters and storage systems look like commodity boxes until you see how much of the process proves reliability.

How many people can join one visit? A single batch is normally kept to 40 people, and larger delegations are split for the walkthrough. Programmes usually start from 10 participants.

How far in advance should we plan? At least 30 days, because the site's approval route asks for more than three weeks and visitor slots are limited.

Can you provide interpretation? Yes. English interpretation is arranged for the briefing and the discussion, and the interpreters are briefed in advance on storage and grid stability vocabulary.

Is the visit suitable for teams without a technical background? Yes. The exhibition hall and briefing suit mixed groups, and the discussion can be pitched at a policy, management or investment level.

Can we combine Sungrow with other companies in Hefei? Yes, and many groups do. Battery, display and electric vehicle manufacturers sit within a short drive, and the common pairing for energy teams is a second visit with the battery industry.

Does the programme always run as described? It is built around the elements above. Facilities and areas opened on the day are subject to what the site opens, and we confirm the final scope in writing during planning, before you commit.

Arrange your Sungrow visit

Tell us the dates you have in mind, how many people are travelling and what your group most wants to see, whether that is inverter manufacturing, storage systems, global market organisation or the wider energy transition agenda. We take it from there: the site request, the programme design, interpretation and local transport, all handled by one team.

Contact China Innovation Visits with your preferred window and we will come back with a proposed programme for your delegation.