Ron Shen, vice president of power electronics manufacturer GoodWe, recently spoke pv magazine at the smarter E Europe event in Munich, Germany, on the company’s position in the European market and its focus on the fast-growing commercial and industrial (C&I) storage segment.
Dynamic electricity rates create new dynamics in the European C&I storage landscape. The development is attracting the attention of major inverter manufacturers, who are increasingly shifting their focus to C&I storage. At the continent’s largest solar and storage trade show, The Smarter E, recently held in Munich, pv magazine spoke with Ron Shen, vice president of power electronics manufacturer GoodWe. The director provided an insight into the company’s activities in this emerging market segment.
Image: Goodwe
Shen stated that the European market is experiencing steady growth and is expected to remain robust during an interview on the trading floor. However, competition is fierce, especially in the residential storage market. Shen spoke of a backlog of storage systems still in stock with European distributors and installers.
He said distribution partners in Europe reported that they are sitting on some quantities of hybrid inverters from different manufacturers that were not installed during the big installation wave of 2022. At the time, high electricity prices caused homeowners to look for PV and storage solutions for their homes. Subsequent upward revisions in demand were met by manufacturers, resulting in more equipment being supplied. Nevertheless, the increased demand levels dissipated as electricity prices returned to pre-war levels, leaving equipment stocked in distributor warehouses.
Now that the residential segment is struggling, new opportunities are increasingly coming into focus. The spread of dynamic electricity rates is causing entrepreneurs to look into commercial and industrial storage applications.
“This market segment is not affected by the same situation as the residential sector, mainly because you don’t pre-produce as many C&I storage systems,” he says.
He expects GoodWe to install between 3,000 and 4,000 C&I storage systems in Europe in the coming year. “But I think there will be exponential growth in this segment in the coming years,” he added. “So it could double, triple and even more in the coming years.”
The main demand currently comes from Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, but also from Poland and Eastern Europe.
Currently, the market is only in its early stages, he said. Companies are just beginning to understand the savings potential that comes from investing in C&I storage systems. In addition to tapping into the arbitrage, that is, purchasing power when it’s cheap and storing it to use later when rates go up, he also mentioned providing ancillary services as a revenue stream for C&I storage.
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He said he also sees value in setting up virtual power plants to share power between one company and multiple locations. Another revenue stream for system owners could be offering charging solutions for company EVs and employee cars, or offering semi-public charging points.
While C&I storage systems have historically been custom solutions, GoodWe has worked to standardize products for different use cases. This should reduce costs and also allow for easier installation. Customization takes time and must be carried out by a specialized company. According to him, this has been a bottleneck in the past.
Another bottleneck for inverter suppliers now appears to have been overcome. When asked about the security of supply of semiconductors and chips, Shen said the industry has responded to the increased demand. The shortages that arose two years ago and slowed production have been compensated by the growing production capacity of semiconductor manufacturers.
GoodWe went a step further, he said, to protect the company against any future risks in the supply chain. “We have formed strategic partnerships with major power semiconductor suppliers such as IGBT and MOSFET.”
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