Sharp vs ARTsolar - solar panel manufacturer comparison
Sharp has the broader catalog (19 vs 0 models). Sharp leans bifacial (53% 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
Sharp Corporation is a Japanese electronics company founded in 1912. It operates globally, offering a wide range of products including consumer electronics, home appliances, energy solutions, and business solutions. Since 2016, it has been majority-owned by Foxconn.
- Founded
- 1912
- Headquarters
- Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, Japan
- Annual capacity
- 15.4 GW/year
- Employees
- 40,123
- Listed
- TYO: 6753
- 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
Sharp skews to higher efficiency: 32% of lineup is 23%+
Sharp offers more 600W+ panels (37% of lineup)
Dominant cell tech: <strong>HJT</strong> (37%)
The flagships
Written summary
Sharp is a Japanese electronics company founded in 1912 and headquartered in Osaka, with a solar manufacturing history spanning several decades. It holds Tier 1 bankable status and distributes modules across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the UK, though it currently does not sell into the United States market. ARTsolar was founded in 2010 in New Germany, KwaZulu-Natal, and is South Africa's only 100% locally owned PV module manufacturer. It operates a sub-GW assembly plant with a nameplate capacity of approximately 340 MW per year, supported by technology partnerships with global brands including Talesun Solar and, from 2025, JA Solar. ARTsolar does not appear on BloombergNEF's published Tier 1 lists, positioning it as a regional rather than globally bankable manufacturer, and Sharp holds the considerably stronger institutional footprint on the world stage.
Sharp has pivoted its entire current product line to N-type TOPCon monocrystalline technology, rolling out multiple module families throughout 2024 - from all-black 425 W panels aimed at premium residential rooftops to glass-backsheet commercial modules in the 440-580 W range and large-format 610 W double-glass bifacial panels suited to utility-scale ground mounts. All carry a 30-year linear power output guarantee. ARTsolar's facility is equipped to assemble PERC, bifacial, N-type, and HJT cell formats, and the company recently produced South Africa's first locally manufactured JA Solar DeepBlue 4.0 Pro n-type modules for a 216 MW utility project. Its core market is South African commercial and utility-scale independent power producer programmes, where local content requirements give domestically assembled panels a structural procurement advantage over imports.
For buyers outside South Africa, Sharp is the clearer default - a Tier 1 manufacturer with a well-documented TOPCon range, global distribution, and decades of brand history. For South African projects where local content scoring under government IPP frameworks is decisive, ARTsolar is a credible and strategically important option. The two brands occupy fundamentally different geographic and institutional niches and are not meaningfully interchangeable.
Generated by Claude Sonnet · 2026-05-16
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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.