At SNEC 2024, PV Tech spoke with Dennis Shi, president of Sunman Energy, about the company’s products, his views on markets offering great potential and financing.
Shi said a lot of commercial rooftops could not install solar PV systems due to their weight and structural limitations. To address this problem, Sunman Energy has produced lightweight crystalline silicon modules, including the 520W frameless SMF lightweight solar modules and 520W Dragonfly, which is 60% lighter than equivalent conventional glass modules.
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Both products are compatible with conventional mounting methods, enabling Sunman Energy to tap into the opportunities in the broader market.
Moreover, as Sunman Energy is a technology company founded by a group of industry veterans aiming to deliver the future of Solar, it commercialised the world’s first glass-free, lightweight and flexible panel – the eArc. Replacing glass completely, eArc brings solar power to markets and application scenarios that were previously impossible.
With a current production capacity of 1GW, Sunman Energy is optimistic about the German, Czech and Japanese markets. Shi said Germany’s recent approval of ‘Solarpaket I’ reforms is “very good for rooftop solar adoption”, while the Czech Republic’s subsidies for companies to install rooftop solar has driven market demand in the country. In Japan, the government announced a feed-in tariff programme for residential and commercial and Industrial (C&I) solar installations.
“All of these tailwinds are really good for our products and solutions,” Shi said.
Looking ahead, Shi said financing has become more difficult to obtain in general, and this has affected the company “to a certain degree”, but Sunman Energy successfully secured financing this year which, in addition to the drop of crystalline silicon prices, allowed the company to become more scalable.
