The solar and renewable energy exhibition “Intersolar Europe 2024” took place in Munich, Germany, from 19-21 June 2024. This is the solar exhibition in the city of Munich, the roots of European Solar Innovation Co., Ltd. and again this year our founder and chairman Dr Philipp visited the exhibition and held various meetings over the three days. Dr. Philipp has been visiting Intersolar for more than 20 years.

We would like to present the following report from Dr. Philipp.

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This year’s Intersolar was even more crowded than last year, making it difficult to walk between the different booths. According to the official Intersolar announcement, there were 3,000 exhibitors (20% increase) and 110,000 visitors (30% increase) in 2024 compared to 2,500 exhibitors and 85,000 visitors in 2023, and compared to pre-COVID 2020, Intersolar has never been so crowded. I don’t think there has ever been one.

Intersolar’s official announcement link: https://www.intersolar.de/press-release/conclusion-exhibition-24

Last year’s exhibition had European plus Chinese feel to it in terms of exhibitors and visitors, but this year there was a more international atmosphere compared to last year, with people from all over the world, including Asia-Pacific, African countries, North America and South America. The Energy Storage Systems (ees Europe) and E-Mobility (Power2Drive Europe) exhibitions were also busy, not with B to C consumers, but with B to B professional exhibitors and experts. Smartfox GmbH (https://smartfox.de/, Dr. Philipp is also a member of the board), which develops chargers and home energy management systems for the German market, was also very busy during the three days of the exhibition with visits from experts at a high business level and many interesting meetings

The continued huge demand of the German and European markets means that prices for modules and PV inverters continue to come under strong downward pressure. The situation is that big wholesalers and big EPCs are able to buy from tier 1 module manufacturers for 0.10 Euro/wp (JPY17.0/wp). (full container base, CIP Rotterdam port).

The sales price from wholesalers to installers and smaller EPCs of course is higher (about 20 – 25 %). Sales price from local installers to end customers is around 0.30 Euro/wp (JPY51.0/wp). The local installers have a nice margin.

Various Chinese module manufacturers were seen exhibiting at Intersolar 2023, but due to the ongoing intense price competition, the impression was that only the major Tier 1 manufacturers stood out at this year’s Intersolar event.

In the area of PV inverters, German SMA and China’s Sungrow had a very large booth and crowded.

The exhibition had a very busy, international and professional atmosphere, but there was nothing revolutionary or ground-breaking, and most of the products were probably upgrades to existing products.

The German solar market continues to perform well, with market forecasts as follows.
2023: 14 GW: 8 GW residential, 3 GW (commercial rooftop), 3 GW (ground-mount)
2024: 18 GW: 9 GW residential, 3 GW (commercial rooftop), 6 GW (ground-mount)
2025: 20 GW: 6 GW residential, 3 GW (commercial rooftop), 11 GW (ground-mount)

• Almost 100% of residential PV system in Germany in 2025 is expected to include storage batteries.
• Ground-mount PV in 2025 is expected to see the deregulation of Germany’s regulations and the expansion of Agri PV.

Though the German solar market demand is strong, the bottleneck is a shortage of construction workers. Small and medium-sized construction companies in each region are doing well with stable residential PV systems, but most of the major EPC companies that handle large-scale projects have a waiting list of six to nine months, with the most popular EPCs having their schedules filled up to 12 months in advance. According to the president of a major German EPC company, the top priority is to solve the shortage of human resources, i.e. to hire people, and the competition for human resources is intensifying.

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In next column, we will introduce the Global Market Outlook for Solar Power 2024 – 2028, a solar market report published annually in Intersolar by SolarPower Europe, the European photovoltaic association.

And next column after the Global Market Outlook, we will introduce a report on solar and energy storage systems in Germany, published by the German Solar Association (BSW Solar).

Column top image: Munich Airport official website: https://www.munich-airport.com/flights-240142