We’d like to summarise the inverter story since 2020 — who’s been shipping the most, who’s rising in Europe, and what is being installed in Ireland
The global solar inverter market has been one of the fastest-moving slices of the energy transition. Since 2020 manufacturers have raced to supply the residential, commercial and utility-scale markets with string, central, hybrid and micro-inverters — and a small set of vendors has dominated shipments.
Below we summarise the leaders by units shipped since 2020, the leading inverter/battery names in Europe, the most popular new brands emerging in Europe, and a best-effort look at Ireland’s most commonly installed inverter brands.
Top 5 global inverter manufacturers by units shipped (since 2020)
Across market reports from Wood Mackenzie, IHS (now part of S&P Global), and industry press, five names consistently appear at the top of shipment volumes since 2020:
Sungrow — China’s Sungrow has been a top shipper year after year and was reported as #1 in several annual shipment tallies (notably strong in 2021 shipments measured in GWac).
Huawei — Huawei remains one of the largest single suppliers by shipped capacity; Wood Mackenzie and others report it and Sungrow as the two dominant players.
Ginlong/Solis — Ginlong’s Solis brand (and sibling brands) have been large-volume shippers into residential and commercial segments and are frequently in the top-10 by annual shipments.
SolarEdge — Especially strong in the residential segment (power optimisers + central inverter deployments) SolarEdge remains a high-volume shipper globally.
SMA / Growatt (tie for prominence) — European heavyweight SMA and China’s Growatt show up in many vendor lists; depending on year and metric (GW vs unit count) either or both can appear in a top-5 set. Wood Mackenzie/IHS analysis put SMA and other Chinese vendors within the leading cohort.
Note on methodology: public sources report shipments by capacity (GWac) or by unit and may vary by year; Wood Mackenzie and IHS / S&P are commonly used industry references for these rankings.
Top 5 inverter + battery manufacturers in Europe
If we look at European firms (or firms with major European manufacturing and sales of both inverters and energy-storage products), these names are among the most relevant:
SMA (Germany) — long-established inverter maker with storage-capable inverters and battery partnerships.
Fronius (Austria) — strong in residential/commercial inverters and storage solutions.
Schneider Electric (France) — offers integrated energy management, inverters and storage hardware/software.
FIMER (Italy) — acquired ABB’s inverter business and is a big European inverter supplier, active in storage integration.
Ingeteam / ABB / Hitachi Energy (Spain / Switzerland) — companies with deep inverter portfolios and storage integrations across Europe.
For European battery manufacturing specifically (cell / pack makers) the top names include Northvolt, Saft, Varta, BMZ and Leclanché, which are central to Europe’s battery supply chain and collaborate with inverter/system integrators.
Top 5 popular new brands gaining traction in Europe
In the last few years a wave of newer or fast-growing brands — often Chinese vendors expanding into European channels — have become widely used:
Growatt, GoodWe, Deye, Deye/Ginlong (Solis) and DEYE/SRNE are examples of brands that have rapidly grown European footprints thanks to competitive pricing and broad product ranges. Industry lists and market-overviews repeatedly list these as “rising” or fast-growing vendors.
(Geopolitics and supply-chain scrutiny of some Chinese vendors has also increased — a recent Reuters/industry series highlights security and sourcing discussions in Europe and the US as these brands scale.)
Ireland — top 5 inverter brands by installs (best-effort)
Ireland’s solar market has expanded rapidly since 2022, but there is no single public national dataset that lists inverter installs by brand. From Irish installer guides, market write-ups and local retailer/installer pages, the most commonly mentioned and widely installed inverter brands in Ireland are:
Huawei — often cited by Irish suppliers for residential and commercial systems.
Fronius — popular with installers for reliability and service in Irish conditions.
SMA — a longstanding European brand used in many Irish projects.
SolarEdge / Enphase — widely used for residential rooftop systems where module-level optimisation or microinverters are preferred.
Solis / SolaX / Growatt / GoodWe — lower-cost, high-volume brands that appear frequently in Irish installer inventories.
Caveat: There is no official tally for Ireland (e.g., ESB/SEAI breakdown by inverter brand) that lists exact installation counts by manufacturer. The list above is based wholesale availability and market coverage; for exact install counts we would need a specific dataset from ESB Networks for connection & distribution, or a specific market-research report.
Since 2020 the global inverter market has concentrated around a handful of high-volume shippers (Sungrow, Huawei, Ginlong/Solis, SolarEdge and SMA/Growatt depending on metric), while Europe balances established local names (SMA, Fronius, Schneider, FIMER) with an influx of competitive new entrants from China. Ireland’s install mix reflects that blend — European reliability names plus increasingly common Chinese brands — but exact brand-by-install statistics for Ireland aren’t publicly published and would require a bespoke data pull from national installers or grid operator datasets.
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