SolarEdge sets sights on top three position in utility solar market

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
Handelsman hopes the company can become a top three vendor in the utility-scale market. Source: SolarEdge.

SolarEdge is eyeing a top three place in the utility solar market as it continues to ramp up its ambitions in the segment.

Speaking at SPI 2018 in California, Lior Handelsman, co-founder and VP of marketing and product strategy, said it made a similar leap in the past.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

“It's a market we are present in now and we weren't two years ago, are we a market leader? No. Do we want to be a market leader in utility? Yes. We're are starting to gain customers and it’s on us to prove that they made the right decision. It was the same when we entered the commercial rooftop space. We entered that space in 2013, and five years later we are a top three player and we now have 20% market share in the US. I hope we can replicate that in the utility market also,” he said.

The pitch the company is giving developers contains the four main angles as in other sectors but with differing levels of importance.

“The more we talk to utility developers [the more] they see that yes there is a premium in the price but a 50% reduction in balance of systems on the DC side, 1-5% of added energy, reduction of O&M, it's real money. They all have an ROI calculation in their prospectus so they can bake in the new assumptions and they see that it’s worthwhile.

“Added energy is not something many of our residential customers sell. It’s not like you do an ROI for every residential system. For example, 10% more or 10% less, it can affect the buying decision but it’s not something you can calculate in money. But 3% more in the utility market, that's huge.”

In the company's most recent earning's call CEO Guy Sella described its phased expansion into the utility market.

“We are already commissioning a 23MW site in India,” said Sella. “We are in the process of larger projects that we’ll have in phases, but we will have more suitable products, some of them coming already [by] the end of this year, some of them coming by mid-next year, and I think there will be two very big steps some time by the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020. So it will be over more or less four steps. Each one will increase our competitiveness and will open bigger and bigger opportunities.”

On the O&M side, Handelsman flags a paper from the EU PVSEC conference that demonstrates how optimisers how can find all the same issues as a drone survey.

“So if an EPC does a drone survey once a year and you consider the cost of scheduling that flight, analysing that data and reacting to it, and also how much money did you lose since the previous drone survey due to performance issues,” he explained. He compares optimisers to effectively running daily drone surveys that also mitigate the faults they find through module-level optimisation. “That's real money that is lying on the table for them,” he said.

SolarEdge clearly believes the timing is right for them to enter the sector.

“In the past perhaps inverters were too small or we didn't have all the integration with SCADA and utility interaction, it was a harder sell. Now, for sure we have the bankability and the product suite and the value. It's a story and a pitch we are getting better at,” said Handelsman.

Read Next

June 9, 2025
Sonnedix has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Renfe to supply 420GWh of renewable energy annually for its commercial operations.
June 9, 2025
Growing political headwinds threaten to dent US solar manufacturing and project deployment, despite a strong start to 2025.
June 6, 2025
rPlus Energies has secured more than US$500 million for an 800MW solar-plus-storage project in Emery County, Utah, US.  
June 6, 2025
Australia’s Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has called on Australia’s climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, to “urgently intervene” on a rule change that could threaten to derail the uptake of rooftop solar PV.
June 6, 2025
ElectraNet has revealed that renewables supplied 100% of South Australia's electricity demand for 27% of 2024, roughly 99 days.
June 5, 2025
Solar manufacturer Involt Energy has broken ground on its first solar cell manufacturing plant in the western Indian state of Gujarat, with an initial annual nameplate capacity of 1.78GW. 

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
June 17, 2025
Napa, USA
Upcoming Webinars
June 30, 2025
10am PST / 6pm BST
Solar Media Events
July 1, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
July 1, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
September 16, 2025
Athens, Greece