With the capacity to store 5,500 inverters and repair 9,000 more per year, the new facility will serve to the business that the Asian multinational has with its customers, suppliers and partners in southern Europe from the region. “When it is fully operational, it will have a workforce of between 90 and 100 employees, according to Javier Izcue, Sungrow’s vice-president for southern Europe.
In 1997, Cao Renxian, a professor at Hefei University of Technology, founded Sungrow in Hefei, China. The company’s name reflects his goal: to grow with the sun. His vision was to manufacture devices capable of converting solar energy into electricity, i.e. to design and produce photovoltaic inverters.
Today, more than 25 years later, Sungrow is a global benchmark in inverter manufacturing. With 13,000 employees worldwide, including 585 in Europe, and a turnover of $10.2 billion in 2023, the company sold 130 GW of inverters last year. Its products are installed in more than 170 countries, and it has been listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange since 2011, with Cao Renxian still its largest shareholder.
Twenty years after its founding, in 2017, Sungrow set up in Navarra, marking its first foray into Spain. From its headquarters in Mutilva, it runs all operations in southern Europe, covering developments in Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and the Balkans.
Javier Izcue, Sungrow’s vice-president for Southern Europe, did not find it difficult to convince the Asian firm to choose Navarra as a location for the development of its Iberian business. “Navarre is a benchmark in renewable energies, with numerous companies in this sector. As for infrastructures, I explained that, although they could be better, we are well connected. And, above all, I convinced them thanks to the two large universities we have in Navarre, because the way to grow is through agreements with them and with vocational training centres”, Izcue explains.
In this sense, Sungrow is a success story of foreign investment in our territory. This is reflected in Invest in Navarra through the testimony that can be accessed through this link.
Source: diariodenavarra.es