Ginlong Technologies, one of the leading manufacturers of solar inverters, has laid out its plans to raise over $100 million (₹7.48 billion) through a non-public offering. The company aims to raise this fund to expand its manufacturing capacity.

As the global string inverter market continues to grow, the company is also planning to use this fund to double the production capacity to 20 GW per year. The company is planning to increase its supply of string inverters to grid-connected and solar plus storage products to customers across the globe.

Speaking on the funding plans, Ginlong President, Yiming Wang, said, “The demand for our Solis inverters has driven this push to double our capacity. We see a boost in demand for string inverters over other technologies due to its cost-competitiveness and reliability. This doubling of production represents an exciting milestone for Solis.”

The company announced that the expansion plans will include the addition of 1,000,000 square feet to the existing facility in Binhai Industrial Park and will raise the total capacity to 20 GW. The company is planning to construct a new R&D (research and development) center, a high-volume production line, increased warehousing capacity, and new offices. A new corporate campus is also planned, which would have offices, a multi-functional conference center, and apartments for dedicated personnel.

Speaking to Mercom India, Idrish Khan, the chief technical officer (CTO) of Solis India, said, “We are really happy to announce that our new second manufacturing facility is under construction. All this has been possible because of the great belief and confidence shown by our customers in India as well as globally. With this new facility, we would be able to increase our manufacturing capabilities to 20 GW by 2021.  We are looking forward to customers’ faith and trust in us in the future.”

Last year, Mercom had reported that Ginlong Technologies was listed as a public company on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. In its initial public offering (IPO), the company had floated 20 million shares at 26.64 yuan (~$3.96) and raised 533 million yuan (~$79.27 million).

In the calendar year 2019, Huawei was the leading string inverter supplier, followed by Growatt and Sungrow. GoodWe and Solis rounded off the top five for the CY 2019. The top five accounted for 76% shipments to the Indian market.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) recently extended the deadline for the self-certification of solar inverters by six months from December 31, 2019, to June 30, 2020, considering the unavailability of labs, lack of testing facilities, and workforce. This has come as a huge relief to inverter suppliers. But on the heels of this announcement, the Ministry has issued draft guidelines for standards regarding the technical specifications for solar grid-tied inverters. The Ministry said that the purpose of the standards is to lay down the requirements for the interconnection of photovoltaic systems and inverters to the utility distribution system.