📈 Market Landscape: Chinese Companies Reshape the Global Map

In 2024, among the top ten global PV tracker manufacturers (by shipments), Chinese companies took three seats, and the ranking saw significant changes. The data below is based on Wood Mackenzie‘s ranking report.

Chinese companies not only broke through in global rankings but also succeeded in multiple overseas markets:

Arctech: Ranked first in Asia‑Pacific (especially India, with a 48% share) and in the Middle East.

TrinaTracker: Achieved the best ever ranking for a Chinese company in Europe (4th) and continued to deepen its presence in the Middle East.

Antai New Energy: Gained a foothold in Asia‑Pacific and Europe, successfully entering the global top ten.

In contrast to booming overseas markets, tracker penetration in China’s domestic market remained low at about 3%. However, with the development of large‑scale “wind‑solar base” projects and the advancement of market‑oriented trading policies, its growth potential is huge.

🏆 Technology Routes: Three Pillars, Each with Its Strengths

🔭 Trackers

In 2024, AI‑driven intelligent tracking algorithms became an industry standard, delivering an additional 2‑4% energy yield, mainly during the morning and evening peak price hours. For example, TrinaTracker‘s intelligent tracking technology won the Silver Award of the 25th China Patent Award. In terms of technical architecture, multi‑point drive design became the mainstream trend, improving system stability and reliability. Responding to the low tracker penetration in China, some companies actively positioned themselves. For instance, Arctech launched its innovative “SkyRack” wireless multi‑point parallel drive system in 2024, while TrinaTracker continued to deepen its overseas presence and also targeted the domestic market.

🏞️ Flexible Mounts

With their significant advantages in complex terrain, high clearance, large span, and ecological friendliness, flexible mounts saw large‑scale application in 2024, becoming a key technology for the “PV+” model, especially prominent in mountain agrivoltaics, fishery‑solar hybrids, and water treatment scenarios.

🔩 Fixed Mounts

Despite competition from trackers and flexible mounts, fixed mounts remain the market foundation due to their economy and reliability, accounting for about 76% of total tender volume in 2024. As module power increases, fixed mounts are also evolving toward larger spans, higher clearance, lightweight, and standardisation to adapt to agrivoltaics and other scenarios.

🔬 Material Innovation: Zn‑Al‑Mg Coating Leads the “Corrosion Revolution”

In 2024, material upgrades became an important trend in the mounting industry. Zinc‑aluminium‑magnesium (Zn‑Al‑Mg) coated steel, with its excellent corrosion resistance and self‑healing ability, is rapidly becoming the mainstream choice for PV mounts.

Full coverage and product breakthroughs: Pangang Group achieved full grade coverage of medium‑aluminium Zn‑Al‑Mg products for PV applications, from 250 MPa to 550 MPa. Its aluminium‑zinc‑magnesium coated steel showed no red rust after 4,000 hours of salt‑spray testing. Shanxi Jianlong independently developed a 550 MPa high‑strength Zn‑Al‑Mg strip (S550GD+ZM), allowing purlin thickness to be reduced to 1.8 mm and overall weight by 12%, thereby lowering material cost and installation difficulty.

Standardisation: The industry standard “Continuously hot‑dip zinc‑aluminium‑magnesium alloy coated steel strip for PV mounts” (T/CSTA 0077‑2024) was released, providing a unified specification for material quality and application.

🏗️ Foundation Innovation: Screw Pile Optimisation and Patent Surge

As the key support for mounts, foundation technology also saw innovation in 2024. Screw piles, due to their convenient installation and low environmental impact, gained wider application.

Patent breakthrough: Zhejiang CHINT New Energy obtained a patent for a “grouted screw pile and PV mount”, significantly improving the horizontal load capacity of the pile by grouting concrete.

Technical optimisation: For desert areas, the industry compared and analysed the construction processes and load capacities of prestressed pipe piles, grouted anchor piles, and steel screw piles, providing data support for pile selection.

🌍 Corporate Strategy: Globalisation and Capacity Expansion

Facing intense domestic competition and growing overseas demand, leading mount manufacturers accelerated their globalisation strategies, setting up factories abroad to get closer to markets and reduce logistics costs.

Arctech: New plants in Saudi Arabia (3 GW) and Brazil (3 GW) commenced production in 2024.

TrinaTracker: Set up a 3 GW smart tracker manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia and planned to select a site for a factory in the US.

Antai New Energy: Partnered with a local company in Saudi Arabia to plan a large production base in the Middle East, aiming for 8 GW capacity in 2025.

📜 Standards and Specifications: The Industry Matures

The formulation and revision of industry standards are important signs of industrial maturity. Several key standards made progress in 2024.

General technical specification for PV mounts: T/UNP 193‑2024 was released, providing a unified basis for the design, manufacture, and inspection of mounts.

Design code for flexible PV mounts: T/CSPSTC 137‑2024 was released, providing technical guidance for the design, construction, and acceptance of flexible mounts, aiming to standardise market practices.

Steel sections for PV mounts: The YB/T standard for “Steel sections for PV mounts” was reviewed, specifying technical requirements for C‑channel, angle steel, and other profiles used in mounts.

Building‑integrated PV mount standard: The Ministry of Housing and Urban‑Rural Development solicited public comments on the industry standard “General technical requirements for solar PV mounting systems in buildings (revision draft)”, promoting the development of building‑integrated photovoltaics.