PV company report: GESOLAR
This report is about is the solar panel manufacturer GESOLAR, a medium size and state-owned Chinese manufacturer with an annual production capacity of over 300 MW. Since our Shanghai-based quality inspection and consultancy service company Kisun Solar Consultancy Services has on the request of several clients carried out a range of quality inspections at this manufacturer, there is plenty of information to share with our readers.
Company background
GESOLAR is an integral part of the state-owned Sainty International Group, one of China’s largest conglomerates founded in 1974, covering businesses such as machinery, shipbuilding, textile production, real estates, mining, automobiles and renewable energy and with total assets of 14 billion USD. In the course of the booming PV industry in China, Sainty International Group founded GESOLAR in 2007. Apart from producing inverters and mounting structures, GESOLAR mainly focuses and is known for the production of solar panels at two factories, one near Nanjing and one in Wuxi, with currently over 600 employees.
State-ownership and quality: costs and benefits
As a state-owned company, GESOLAR enjoys several advantages but also disadvantages as compared to the many privately owned manufacturing enterprises in China. From the financial point of view, state ownership and being part of a large conglomerate ensures enough capital to survive in the current competitive PV market in the long term and ensures sufficient funds to keep up with the latest R&D developments not only an important aspect in terms of product quality but also for customers that dealing with GESOLAR would less likely face a supplier that suddenly shuts down (its CEOs vanishing with the already paid cash for not-delivered panels in their pockets) and does not anymore deliver already paid goods as it has been increasingly happening in the past 1.5 years in China.
Although GESOLAR claims to be a fully vertically integrated PV panel manufacturer, the company is still reliant on external suppliers (e.g. Motech from Taiwan for cells) for the basis of its produces. The company is however undertaking steps into this direction. Numerous quality inspections have shown that although like many others in the industry currently a bit struggling with the new quality issue of cell color deviations (CCDs) this manufacturer produces PV panels of quite consistently good quality and output performance which explains the comparatively higher pricing of their produces. As state-owned company, bureaucratic regulations such as weekends offs and thus shutdowns of their factories cost GESOLAR much flexibility as compared to its privately-owned competitors, resulting in observable slower production lead time.
PV products
GESOLAR has been specialized in crystalline solar panels since its establishment in 2007. The company produces a wide range of on-grid mono crystalline (180W – 305W) and poly crystalline (175W – 290W) as well as BIPV modules. GESOLAR also produces panels with lower outputs ranging from 5W to 145W, targeting at the provision of cost-effective solutions for the low-cost centric off-grid sector. The Nanjing-based PV module manufacturer also offers OEM solutions, involving the production of customized PV modules (in terms of power output, size, color, labeling etc. of the panels) for large companies such as ReneSola.
Certifications, warranty and insurance
All of GESOLAR’s PV panels, including those produced under OEM licence which is a remarkable advantage of this manufacturer come with important standard certifications such as CE, IEC 61215/ EC 61215, IEC 61730 certified by TÜV as well as cUL 1730, CEC, MCS and RoHS. GESOLAR is part of the PV Cycle mechanism, too, and its production facilities are ISO 9001: 2008 certified. The panels come with a warranty of 25 years. All panels are insured via CHUBB.
Distribution
Although GESOLAR cooperates with distributor and wholesale agents in Greece and Italy and even has its own distribution office in Cyprus pointing at GESOLAR’s sales focus on the Mediterranean region the company has no overseas warehouse and thus no quickly accessible stock outside of China.
Conclusion
Although comparatively new in the market, GESOLAR has been catching our eyes as reasonably consistent producer of quality panels even in the face of current decreasing quality standards at other manufacturers in China (which has in the past 6 months resulted in increasingly more complaints from overseas customers and also requests for PV quality inspections from our company). The company has a wide range of PV panel products and offers quality OEM production, all coming with most of the important international and regional certifications. Yet, although dedicated to offer premium quality and relationship services to its customers, GESOLAR lacks however the operational flexibility to react quickly to customer requirements and respond to newly arising quality issues and also lies behind the production speed of many of its competitors in the industry, which in this fast-paced market might be quite a serious and daunting issue for some customers.
GESOLAR website: http://www.gesolar-power.com
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- Do you have experience with GESOLAR solar modules? Feel free to comment.
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