Q-Cells vs Solplanet - solar panel manufacturer comparison
Q-Cells has the broader catalog (89 vs 0 models). Q-Cells leans bifacial (39% 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
Qcells is a renowned global provider of complete energy solutions, specializing in solar cells and modules, energy storage solutions, downstream project business, and energy retail. The company has a strong heritage dating back to its foundation in Germany and has become a leader in technology innovations. As an...
- Founded
- 1999
- Headquarters
- Seoul, South Korea
- Annual capacity
- 11.2 GW/year
- Employees
- 2000+
- Listed
- NASDAQ: HQCL
- Tier 1 bankable
- Yes
Solplanet, a brand of AISWEI, manufactures user-friendly and reliable solar inverters, EV chargers and monitoring solutions. AISWEI, formerly SMA's Chinese subsidiary, has been manufacturing high-quality products since 2007. The company is driven by the idea of 'solar for everybody', making solar energy accessible...
- Founded
- 2007
- Headquarters
- Shanghai, China
- Annual capacity
- 10 GW/year
- Employees
- 127
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
Q-Cells skews to higher efficiency: 2% of lineup is 23%+
Q-Cells offers more 600W+ panels (19% of lineup)
Dominant cell tech: <strong>PERC</strong> (43%)
The flagships
Written summary
Q-Cells is a South Korean and German solar manufacturer, founded in Germany in 1999 and now operating as Hanwha Qcells under Korean conglomerate Hanwha, with manufacturing in South Korea, the United States, and Malaysia. It holds Top Tier Class bankability status in BloombergNEF reports and sits consistently on the BloombergNEF Tier 1 list, with annual module production capacity reported around 11 GW as of late 2025. Solplanet, by contrast, is a brand of AISWEI, a Shanghai-headquartered company founded in 2009 that began as the Chinese manufacturing arm of Germany's SMA before launching its own Solplanet-branded products in 2019. AISWEI reports roughly 10 GW of annual production capacity and ranks among the top global suppliers of residential inverters and storage systems, but it is important to note that Solplanet is primarily an inverter and battery-storage brand rather than a solar panel manufacturer, so direct panel-to-panel comparisons with Q-Cells are not well supported by available sources. On institutional footprint, Q-Cells has the stronger and longer-established position specifically in panel manufacturing and bankability.
Q-Cells' product lineup, such as the Q.TRON series, targets premium residential and commercial rooftops, with independent testing noting efficiencies up to around 23.7 percent and strong temperature coefficients that aid performance in hot climates; the company uses advanced cell technology and has also expanded into utility-scale supply through its US manufacturing base. Solplanet's relevant offerings are string inverters, hybrid inverters, and all-in-one battery systems for single-phase and three-phase residential and small commercial installations, often paired with third-party solar panels rather than its own.
For a typical buyer in 2025 seeking solar panels specifically, Q-Cells is the more directly comparable and better-documented choice given its Tier 1 bankability and dedicated module manufacturing track record. Solplanet is better evaluated as a complementary inverter or battery brand rather than as a panel competitor to Q-Cells, so the two brands are not truly interchangeable within the panel category.
Generated by Claude Sonnet 5 · 2026-10-03
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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.