Canadian Solar vs Q-SUN Solar - solar panel manufacturer comparison
Canadian Solar has the broader catalog (292 vs 111 models). Canadian Solar leads on peak efficiency at 24.40%. Q-SUN Solar leans bifacial (68% 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
Qn-SOLAR officially launched its global PV business in 2022. The company is headquartered in Shanghai, China, and has four manufacturing bases in China. As a professional and integrated company, Qn-SOLAR operates in various fields of PV upstream and downstream, achieving an annual production capacity of 20GW PV cells...
- Founded
- 2014
- Headquarters
- China
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%+
Q-SUN Solar offers more 600W+ panels (30% of lineup)
Dominant cell tech: <strong>PERC</strong> (67%)
Dominant cell tech: <strong>N-type</strong> (42%)
The flagships
Written summary
Canadian Solar was founded in 2001 by Dr. Shawn Qu in Guelph, Ontario, went public on Nasdaq as CSIQ in 2006, and recently opened an expanded global headquarters in Kitchener, Canada. It has consistently held BloombergNEF Tier 1 bankability status and now operates annual module manufacturing capacity in the range of 61 GW, backed by roughly 20,000 employees across more than 20 countries. Q-SUN Solar is a much younger company, established in 2014, with an international marketing center in Nanjing and production bases in Chuzhou, Tianchang and Yancheng, plus facilities in Oman and Bulgaria, shipping over 8 GW of modules annually to nearly one million customers in more than 50 countries, though it does not appear on published BloombergNEF Tier 1 lists. On institutional footprint and scale, Canadian Solar is clearly the more established name.
Canadian Solar's portfolio spans utility-scale and commercial installations through its N-type TOPCon based HiKu and TOPBiHiKu6/7 lines, alongside its premium HiHero series using heterojunction (HJT) cells reaching up to about 24.4 percent efficiency, all typically backed by 25 to 30 year warranties. Q-SUN Solar leans more toward residential and light commercial rooftop use, with its Mercury series (mono and bifacial modules from 400 W to 720 W, 22.5 to 23 percent efficiency) and its all-black, grid-line-free Onyx series aimed at aesthetics-conscious homeowners, while also pursuing 0BB cell technology and carbon-footprint certifications. Both companies serve overlapping use cases, but with different emphasis on scale versus design.
For a typical buyer, particularly on larger commercial or utility projects where bankability and financing terms matter, Canadian Solar is the safer default given its Tier 1 status, longer track record, and production scale. Q-SUN Solar can be a reasonable choice for residential buyers prioritizing panel aesthetics and newer cell technology at a potentially lower price point, but buyers should weigh its shorter operating history and less established financial standing against Canadian Solar's proven institutional credentials.
Generated by Claude Sonnet 5 · 2026-08-07
Other brand comparisons
Shop prices: See 38 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.