Canadian Solar vs Hoymiles - solar panel manufacturer comparison
Canadian Solar has the broader catalog (292 vs 0 models). Canadian Solar leans bifacial (46% 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
Hoymiles Power Electronics Inc. specializes in module-level power electronics (MLPE) solutions, including microinverters, energy storage, and monitoring systems. They focus on research and development, manufacturing, and sales of photovoltaic inverter power conversion equipment. Their mission is to make smart energy...
- Founded
- 2012
- Headquarters
- Shanghai, China
- Employees
- 1,640
- 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
Canadian Solar skews to higher efficiency: 13% of lineup is 23%+
Canadian Solar offers more 600W+ panels (24% of lineup)
Dominant cell tech: <strong>PERC</strong> (67%)
The flagships
Written summary
Canadian Solar is a solar module manufacturer founded in 2001 and headquartered in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, with manufacturing concentrated in China and Southeast Asia. Listed on NASDAQ since 2006, the company was named to S&P Global Commodity Insights' Tier 1 cleantech list in 2025, and its stated module capacity target for end of 2025 stands at 51.2 GW - placing it among the world's largest panel producers. Hoymiles Power Electronics, founded in 2012 and headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, occupies a fundamentally different product category: it is a microinverter and power electronics specialist rather than a panel manufacturer. Listed on Shanghai's STAR Market since 2021 and active in more than 110 countries, Hoymiles has been recognized as Tier 1 on BloombergNEF's Global Energy Storage Manufacturers list. Canadian Solar carries the stronger institutional footprint on the panel side of the industry.
Canadian Solar's current residential and commercial lineup centers on N-type TOPCon modules - the TOPHiKu6 all-black series for residential rooftops and the bifacial TOPBiHiKu7 for utility and commercial ground mounts - while PERC-based HiKu6 modules continue to serve value-oriented commercial segments. Hoymiles, by contrast, produces no solar panels; its portfolio spans the HMS and MiS microinverter families, hybrid and off-grid inverters, and a dedicated plug-in balcony solar line aimed at apartment-dwellers and small DIY installations. The two brands address completely separate purchase decisions within a solar project.
Rather than competing, Canadian Solar and Hoymiles are routinely deployed together on the same rooftop - Canadian Solar supplying the panels, Hoymiles supplying the microinverters. A buyer comparing the two as equivalents is comparing unlike categories. Evaluating solar module options, Canadian Solar is a well-bankable default across all installation scales in 2025. Evaluating microinverters or balcony solar kits, Hoymiles is a strong Tier 1 contender. Neither brand displaces the other.
Generated by Claude Sonnet · 2026-06-11
Other brand comparisons
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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.