The 9 largest solar panel manufacturers in the world

At a glance

Despite being founded as recently as August 2018, this newcomer has earned a place at the top table with its rapid growth.

DAS Solar, which is based in Zhejiang in eastern China, shipped 10GWp of its n-type and p-type monocrystalline solar panels in the first half of 2024. N-type panels are doped with phosphorus, while p-type panels are doped with boron.

It owns 14 factories all over China, and in late 2024, announced its plan to build a first European plant: a 3GW, £92 million manufacturing centre in Mandeure, in north-east France.

The manufacturer also has an eye for innovations. It's created lightweight panels that are just 10.2kg – around half the standard weight – yet still have a peak power rating of 475W and an efficiency of 20.8%.

The company also makes solar backpacks in 10W, 20W, and 30W varieties, allowing you to charge your phone or wireless headphones while you're on the move.

GCL sells an impressive range of solar panels and batteries.

This includes the NH12/66GDF, which has a 720W power rating and 23.2% efficiency – making it one of the most powerful panels around.

The company, which has its headquarters just outside of Shanghai, in the coal-heavy region of Jiangsu, also offers modular 5.1kWh batteries.

These machines can combine to form 30kWh of domestic storage.

However, with China reaching its solar panel saturation point, GCL-SI's parent company is struggling. Even as it was shipping 10GWp of panels in the first half of 2024, it was racking up a net loss of $213 million (£165 million).

The seventh-largest solar manufacturer is the only solar panel manufacturer on this list to have its main headquarters outside China.

Canadian Solar has more than 20,000 employees in dozens of countries, as well as manufacturing facilities in Canada, the US, Brazil, and across Asia.

It caters to the residential, commercial, and utility markets with a product range including solar panels, storage batteries, and inverters. 

In the first half of 2024, the company exported solar panels with a peak power rating of 14.5GWp.

The average Canadian home uses 10,861 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, meaning the company produced enough solar panels in six months to consistently power 1.3 million households in standard test conditions (STC).

STC is how manufacturers test a solar panel’s attributes, and includes a solar irradiance of 1,000W per m² and a cell temperature of 25°C.

Astronergy, which is a subsidiary of CHINT Group and officially called CHINT New Energy Technology Co. Ltd., has 7,553 employees, and offices on four continents.

The Chinese company also owns 11 manufacturing bases in China, Thailand, and Türkiye, and has sales offices on every continent (bar Antarctica, of course).

It focuses entirely on solar panels, which it sells to households, utilities, and other companies.

It's supplied these panels to create solar farms in 22 countries all over the world, including nations as far-flung as Australia, Bulgaria, Spain, South Africa, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, and China.

The largest, in the south-western Chinese province Sichuan, has a capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW) – enough to power 294,000 UK households for a year in STC.

Tongwei Solar shipped 18.7GW of solar panels in the first half of 2024, reflecting its long-held status as one of the world's largest solar companies.

The Sichuan-based manufacturer employs more than 58,000 staff and is the world's largest polycrystalline silicon producer, making a total of 450,000 tons per year.

In August 2023, Tongwei became the first solar company to make the Fortune Global 500 list, and as of March 2025, makes $594 million (£460 million) in annual profit.

Tongwei has also stated that its 54 solar farms in China have cut the country's carbon footprint by 3.3 million tons.

LONGi is fourth on our list, with 31.3GWp of solar panel shipments in the first six months of 2024.

With more than 60,000 employees in over 30 countries, and manufacturing plants in China, Malaysia, Vietnam, LONGi is a giant of research and production.

This is further evidenced by its prominent position on our pages tracking the most efficient and most powerful solar panels.

To meet its own sustainability commitments, the company uses clean energy and green manufacturing within all its operations, as part of its 'Solar for Solar' business model.

It also sponsors the global organisation that runs men's tennis, the Association of Tennis Professionals, as its solar energy and hydrogen partner.

This Chinese manufacturer shipped a massive 34GWp worth of solar panels in the first half of 2024.

In STC, these modules could generate enough electricity to power 10 million UK households.

Trina Solar – which is the oldest company on this list having been founded before the new millennium – has manufacturing centres in Brazil, Indonesia, Spain, Thailand, Vietnam, the UAE, and the US, and employs more than 43,000 people.

As well as making panels, storage batteries, and trackers, Trina has also built large-scale solar installations in China, Japan, Vietnam, Australia, Chile, Mexico, the US, Greece – and two solar farms in the UK.

Between 2020 and 2022, Trina also achieved a 62% reduction in the carbon emissions that come from producing its solar panels.

The company also invests heavily in research, shown by it claiming its 27th world record for solar efficiency and power in October 2024.

Beijing-based JA Solar secured second place by shipping 38GWp of solar panels in the first half of 2024.

The company, which also occupies spots on our lists of the most powerful and most efficient panels, has 50,000 employees and a network that covers 165 territories.

It's supplied panels for solar farms all over the world – for instance, in the UK, US, India, Morocco, Jordan, and Australia – including a 255MW installation in Brazil that could power at least 75,000 UK homes.

This helped JA Solar to cut the world's carbon footprint by 37 million tonnes of CO2 in 2023, according to its annual report.

JinkoSolar comfortably tops our rankings, having shipped a gigantic 47.2GWp of solar panels in 2024's first six months.

The Shanghai-based company has 14 factories in China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the US, and 57,000 employees – including 1,500 who work in the firm's eight research and development centres.

JinkoSolar offers a range of PV modules and storage systems for both domestic and commercial use, and in 2023 became the first solar manufacturer to have shipped 210GWp of solar panels.

The company, which sponsors Manchester City, made a net profit of 7.4 billion Chinese yuan (£795 million) in 2023.