China’s Ginlong Solis Eyes Mexican Solar Investments

Ginlong Solis, a Chinese company that focuses on solar inverters, has brought most of its portfolio to the Mexican market already. Currently, the company’s plans are set on expansion, as it aims to raise US$100 million to bolster its manufacturing capacity, storage projects and supply to the energy network worldwide, reported Agencia EFE.

Yiming Wang, President of Ginlong Solis, said that the sizeable investment will be used to double the company’s production capacity to 20GW per year, which will be achieved by expanding its Chinese manufacturing plants. “Demand for our ultra-reliable inverters has led us to decide to double our capacity,” Wang said. Despite focusing its investment on the supply chain in the country of origin, Wang stresses that Mexico is one of the company’s priorities.

Here, it launched an innovative new product: a hybrid string inverter with integrated storage. The inverter has been designed for the residential sector, where it can reach up to 100 percent solar self-sufficiency energy without needing to be connected to the grid. This is possible because its lithium batteries can store up to 20kWh. While this is not sufficient for industrial applications, it is enough to cover the normal use in the domestic sphere.

Independence from the grid is a coveted boon for those seeking energy reliability. By adapting so-called microgrids, local authorities in California are hoping to solve recent issues with wildfires, which can destroy everything in their path, from houses to energy infrastructure. A traditional grid would suffer blackouts from this type of destruction, but by enhancing self-sufficiency without disregarding the possibility to connect to the wider grid, power can still be generated when all else fails. Ginlong Solis’ inverters could be connected to the micro or macro-grid, but offer the possibility of every house generating energy for itself. With trends favoring distributed generation, these options will become more prominent in the Mexican market. “Before, solar energy did not think about megaprojects, it was focused on small businesses because there were limits to commercialization. Now, the industry has shelved utility-scale projects and has again circled back to the domestic industry,” said Casiopea Ramírez, Partner at Fresh Energy Consulting and Adviser to ASOLMEX, at Mexico Energy Forum earlier this year.