Canadian Solar vs G-STAR - solar panel manufacturer comparison
Canadian Solar has the broader catalog (292 vs 36 models). Canadian Solar leads on peak efficiency at 24.40%. G-STAR leans bifacial (86% of lineup).
Both catalogues are read from the manufacturers' own datasheets. A brand is not scored against the market here, only against the other brand on this page.
The two companies
Canadian Solar Inc. is a global renewable energy company founded in 2001. Headquartered in Kitchener, Ontario, it manufactures solar PV modules and provides battery energy storage solutions. The company also develops utility-scale solar power and battery energy storage projects.
- Founded
- 2001
- Headquarters
- Kitchener, Canada
- Annual capacity
- 51 GW/year
- Employees
- 17,113
- Listed
- NASDAQ: CSIQ
- Tier 1 bankable
- Yes
Catalogue against catalogue
An average over a catalogue describes the range a manufacturer publishes, not the module you would buy. A brand with two flagship panels and eighty older ones averages worse than one that has retired its back catalogue.
What each of them builds
G-STAR skews to higher efficiency: 28% of lineup is 23%+
G-STAR offers more 600W+ panels (36% of lineup)
Dominant cell tech: <strong>PERC</strong> (67%)
Dominant cell tech: <strong>TOPCon</strong> (72%)
The flagships
Written summary
Canadian Solar is a Canadian manufacturer headquartered in Kitchener, Ontario, founded in 2001, that grew from a small local startup into one of the world's largest module suppliers, having shipped more than 133 GW of panels cumulatively by 2024. It holds BloombergNEF Tier 1 bankability status, meaning it has demonstrated a track record of supplying non-recourse-financed projects for multiple banks, and its module manufacturing capacity is estimated at roughly 61 GW annually across facilities in the US, Canada, China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Brazil. G-STAR (G-STAR Pte. Ltd.) is a much younger, Singapore-registered brand founded in 2019, with production in the Philippines and a planned US facility, operating around 3 GW of cell capacity and 2 GW of module capacity - roughly an order of magnitude smaller than Canadian Solar - and available sources do not indicate it currently appears on BloombergNEF's Tier 1 list. On institutional footprint and delivery history, Canadian Solar is clearly the stronger of the two.
Canadian Solar's product range is centered on N-type TOPCon modules, supplemented by a US-made heterojunction (HJT) line aimed at higher efficiency and better high-temperature performance, and covers everything from residential and commercial rooftop systems to utility-scale solar farms and battery storage. G-STAR offers both N-type and P-type modules spanning 425 W to 725 W, targeting residential, commercial and some utility-scale projects mainly in the US, Europe and India, and advertises a 25-year product warranty with a 30-year linear performance warranty and 0.40 percent annual degradation.
For a typical international buyer, whether a homeowner or a commercial project developer, Canadian Solar remains the safer default choice given its confirmed bankability, long shipping history and established service network. G-STAR can be a reasonable option for price-sensitive or smaller projects, but buyers should independently verify local warranty support and service infrastructure, since it lacks a comparable institutional track record at this stage.
Generated by Claude Sonnet 5 · 2026-09-16
Other brand comparisons
Shop prices: See 39 Canadian Solar offers
Comparisons are computed from manufacturer datasheets held in the ComparePV database and may not reflect a brand's complete current lineup. Nothing on this page is paid placement.