The 2025 edition of the SNEC PV Power Expo, currently taking place in Shanghai, China, is demonstrating the resilience of the Chinese PV supply chain amid severe overcapacity.

Despite low prices and a low- or zero-margin environment, China’s largest solar trade show remained well attended by both domestic and international visitors. This indicates sustained interest in new products and technologies, although the number of product announcements, particularly for PV modules, appears significantly lower than in past editions.

While more manufacturers displayed new back-contact (BC) or perovskite module prototypes, TOPCon panels continued to dominate as the mainstream technology at this year’s show. Still, BC and perovskite technologies drew strong interest from potential buyers.

“My feeling is that the event is slightly less attended than last year,” said Dani Qian, global vice president at JinkoSolar, told pv magazine. “We can see that even top-tier manufacturers have booths with less space. As an interesting trend, we are seeing increasing interest in storage products. The whole storage business is currently more exciting than the PV business thanks to strong demand.”

Qian said JinkoSolar will continue to focus on pure TOPCon solutions, without hybridizing with BC technologies.

“We firmly believe that TOPCon will remain the dominant technology for many years, especially if we consider the advantages it offers in terms of price and bifaciality,” she said. “As BC or heterojunction, the TOPCon technology keeps evolving and improving both in terms of costs and efficiency, which is key to helping us maintain a winning position.”

Yang Bao, global sales and marketing president at Trinasolar, said SNEC remains the top global event for showcasing new products and innovation.

“This year, we have seen an increasing number of storage products being presented, which shows the storage business has now taken a new dimension,” he said. “SNEC offers this unique opportunity to see all storage and solar products in a single exhibition.”

Market uncertainty

Jessica Jin, solar analyst at S&P Global, said this year’s event is similar in size to last year’s show, but with fewer Western attendees.

“But generally, I still see good meetings going on, although everyone is asking what could happen in the Chinese market in the second half of this year,” she said. “There’s still a lot of uncertainty and everybody is looking for new potential markets.”

She added that new PV module product launches have dropped considerably.

“There are very few changes in traditional crystalline modules,” she said. “We are rather seeing more companies presenting perovskite module prototypes here, although mass production is not there yet.”

S&P Global head analyst Edurne Zoco said China’s power sector reform is having significant effects on the PV market.

“China is transitioning from feed-in tariff to merchant,” she said. “And the market will need some time to adjust. Battery and module manufacturers are really concerned about overcapacity and are looking for new markets, but we are also seeing fewer foreign visitors at the show, with some significant presence, however, from India and Pakistan.”

According to Zoco, price dominated earlier editions.

“The discussions now are mostly about potential hurdles,” she said. “We heard a lot about inverters and grid-forming technology, for example, which we expect to be one of the most important trends for 2026.”

Storage spotlight

Energy storage drew increased attention on the show floor.

CATL displayed a new vertical high-capacity concept with two shipping containers stacked to deliver a 9 MWh solution. Sungrow showcased its PowerTitan 3.0, a utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) rated at 3.125 MW/12.5 MWh – a four-hour system.

The PowerTitan 3.0 features state-of-charge (SOC) balancing from cell to system level to improve availability. However, it is not packaged in a standard 20-foot container and weighs 96 tons – too heavy for overseas markets, according to a Sungrow representative. A smaller version compatible with a 20-foot container, offering 6.9 MWh, is now in development.

Gotion presented a 20 MWh system that also exceeds container limits and must be assembled onsite. This format could be used to retrofit existing PV plants seeking to shift generation away from midday peaks to avoid negative pricing. In such cases, high volumetric energy density and spatial efficiency are critical.

Safety also emerged as a central theme. Hithium showed burn test footage in which flames did not spread between containers. Svolt previewed a new battery pack with cells submerged in coolant for more even and effective thermal management.

Still, manufacturers are refining LFP cells. Cornex, for instance, is using additives like active oxygen agents to improve performance. Customers can choose between cells optimized for high-temperature stability or reduced degradation, depending on application.

Other innovations included a mobile electric vehicle (EV) charging robot by CEE Power. If chargers are unavailable at a highway station, the robot autonomously navigates to the car. “Every parking spot becomes a charging spot,” a representative said. The robot contains a 60 kWh battery and delivers a 60 kW (DC) charge.

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