✔ Tongwei Solar is the largest solar panel manufacturer
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✔ The second-largest manufacturer is JA Solar
✔ Six of the top seven largest solar panel manufacturers are Chinese companies
The price of solar panels might be going down, but the shipments and revenues of the largest solar panel manufacturers certainly aren’t.
So, who are these solar power giants? We’ll tell you who the top seven solar panel manufacturers are based on the amount of shipments they send out, and give you a few details about each one.
Most of the world’s largest solar panel manufacturers are based in China, with six out of the top seven manufacturers being Chinese companies.
Rank
Company
Headquarters
2022 shipment capacity in gigawatts (GW)
1
Tongwei Solar
China
38.1
2
JA Solar
China
36.2
3
Aiko Solar
China
30.7
4
LONGi Solar
China
29.2
5
Jinko Solar
China
23.9
6
Canadian Solar
Canada
16.8
7
Trina Solar
China
14.5
Data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s 2023 Spring Report
Our rankings are based on the solar panel manufacturers’ number of shipments in 2022, since this is an indicator of the real world impact the companies have.
We’ll go over who the top manufacturers are, and give you a few details about them in the sections below.
Tongwei Solar is the world’s largest solar panel manufacturer; it shipped 38.2 GW of solar cells and solar panels in 2022. That’s the equivalent of over 100,000 typical 350 watt (W) solar panels.
On top of that, Tongwei Solar has an annual solar cell production capacity of 70 GW, and an annual solar panel production capacity of 14 GW.
The China-based company has over 40,000 employees and an average revenue of around 156 billion CNY (£17 billion), according to The Financial Times.
Tongwei exports its products to multiple countries, including the UK, Germany, France, the US, and Australia.
JA Solar is the second-largest solar manufacturer, based on shipments. In 2022, it shipped out 36.2 GW worth of solar cells and panels.
The Chinese company has over 32,000 employees, and has produced solar cells that have an efficiency of 25% (the average is 20%).
JA Solar stated that its annual sales revenue was 72.9 billion CNY (£8.04 billion) in 2022, a figure that’s likely to increase. Its revenue for the first half of 2023 has already grown by 43.5% compared to 2022, and is expected to rise further.
The company ships its products to over 135 countries, including the UK.
Aiko Solar is the third-largest solar manufacturer, shipping 30.7 GW of solar panels and cells in 2022. Since its founding in 2022, it’s exported over 100 GW of solar products.
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The Shanghai-based company has over 9,140 employees and a revenue of 35.34 billion CNY (£3.88 billion).
Apart from solar cells and solar panels, the company also makes solar inverters, solar storage batteries, and mounting systems.
Aiko Solar also became a member of the United Nations Global Compact initiative in 2023, which is the world’s largest corporate sustainability scheme. Its members promote values centred around human rights and the environment.
LONGi Solar, another Chinese company, is the fourth-largest solar manufacturer.
The company has a revenue of around 128 billion CNY (£14 billion), which is the second highest revenue on this list.
However, LONGi loses out on the top spot since it shipped out less solar panels and cells over the course of 2022 than the top companies on this list, though it still managed to reach an impressive 29.2 GW.
On top of manufacturing solar equipment, LONGi is also developing equipment to produce green hydrogen, founding LONGi Hydrogen in 2021.
LONGi exports its products to 150 countries, and it also has production facilities in four nations, including its native China.
Jinko Solar is the fifth-largest solar manufacturer, shipping out 23.9 GW worth of solar panels and cells in 2022. Cumulatively, the company has shipped 165 GW.
In 2022, Jinko Solar made 83.53 billion CNY (£9.18 billion) in revenue, an increase of 105% compared to the previous year.
It has over 14 factories, including a manufacturing base in the US, and ships products to more than 160 countries.
Jinko Solar’s solar panels are available for domestic use, and have also been used in solar farms, including the world’s largest hybrid solar-hydro plant located in Yajiang county, in Eastern Tibet.
Canadian Solar is the sixth-largest solar manufacturer on our list, and the only one based in Canada (as you might have guessed) instead of China.
In 2022, Canadian Solar shipped 16.8 GW of solar cells and panels, reaching 23 countries across six continents.
The Canadian company has 20,000 employees, and its 2022 revenue was $7.47 billion CAD (£4.42 billion).
As well as developing solar cells and solar panels, Canadian Solar also manufactures solar storage batteries for residential and commercial use.
Trina Solar is the seventh-largest solar manufacturer in terms of shipments. In 2022, it shipped the equivalent of 14.5 GW.
Its annual revenue is around 98.7 billion CNY (£10.87 billion), and it has over 23,000 employees.
Trina Solar doesn’t just make solar panels, they also make solar trackers (which move solar panels so they follow the sun), and solar storage batteries.
The company also specialises in developing smart solar technology, such as ‘smart micro-grids’, which are electric grids that automatically adjust electricity generation and distribution based on consumers’ usage.
Most of the largest solar panel manufacturers are based in China, and the country currently supplies 80% of the world’s solar panels, according to the International Energy Agency.
China is also winning the solar power race in terms of capacity; it has over three times the capacity of the other top three countries combined, based on the latest numbers from Our World in Data.
This could mean that countries and regions such as the UK, the US, and the European Union, who want to increase their use of solar power, might need to take a leaf out of China’s book and start manufacturing more solar panels domestically.
If you want more facts and stats about the state of solar power, check out our page on solar panels statistics.
The largest solar farm is Golmud Solar Park in China. Situated in the north-western Qinghai province, the solar farm has more than seven million solar panels, which have a combined capacity of 2.8 GW.
Project Solar is the biggest solar panel supplier in the UK, and is also one of the best solar panel installers . It’s been in business since 2011, and has completed over 45,000 solar panel installations nationwide.
There are a few solar panel manufacturers in the UK, including GB-Sol, Viridian Solar, and UKSOL. Not all of them manufacture all their solar panel parts in the UK, but all their panels are designed and assembled in the UK.
There are also a few companies that make non-traditional types of solar panels. Polysolar, for example, is a UK-based company that manufactures transparent solar panels. AES Solar makes solar thermal panels in the UK.
The world’s largest solar manufacturer has slashed nearly a third of its workforce after a cost-cutting drive that included telling staff to only print in black and white fell short and as a chill ripples through the renewable energy sector.
China’s Longi is to cut as much as 30% of its workforce, in an acceleration of cost reductions that began late last year, Bloomberg reported.
It is unclear exactly how many jobs will be lost at the company, which employed 80,000 at its peak last year, as an internal function allowing employees to see the total number of staff has reportedly been disabled.
The renewables industry is facing significant headwinds in the fallout from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. Moscow’s reduction in gas supplies into continental Europe left governments scrambling to beef up domestic power generation, accelerating a shift towards renewables.
However, the resulting higher energy bills pushed up inflation rates, adding costs to renewables supply chains already under pressure from the surge in demand. Meanwhile, oil and gas companies have retrenched from green projects in favour of traditional high-margin fossil fuel projects.
As a result, renewables companies have been pausing projects and cutting jobs in an attempt to rebalance their portfolios. The solar industry has a history of boom-and-bust cycles, dictated typically by government policies.
China is the centre of the world’s solar supply manufacturing industries and a proliferation of new factories dedicated to the technology has created fierce competition.
Longi manufacturers wafers – a component used in solar panels. The company, based in Xi’an in central China, has been forced to suspend investment plans while also cutting prices.
Before the job cuts, the company previously tried to reduce costs through a series of smaller measures. These included cancelling free afternoon tea, cutting business trip budgets and informing staff that they must only print in black and white unless they received permission, Bloomberg reported. Longi’s Shanghai office has reportedly stopped offering free coffee.
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The solar company’s net income fell sharply last year, down by 44% to 2.52bn yuan (£275m) in the third quarter of 2023. Its shares have fallen about 70% from their 2021 peak.
Longi has been contacted for comment.
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