A leading global supplier of solar charge controllers and inverters, Morningstar Corporation has been at the forefront of innovation, technical excellence and customer service for over two decades. We caught up with Lee Gordon, the company’s President and CEO, to ask him about his views on the industry and to discover just how he’s managed to help steer such a steady course for so long.
PES: Welcome to PES magazine. Would you like to introduce the company to our readers and explain how you serve the PV industry?
Lee Gordon: Morningstar Corporation is a world-leading supplier of off-grid solar charge controllers and inverters – with over two million units installed, in over 111 countries around the world. Our products are generally installed in off-grid sites where mains power is not readily available and the power requirements are relatively modest. Typical applications include telecommunications, oil/gas telemetry, security systems, lighting, marine/mobile systems and rural electrification.
Morningstar is renowned for delivering the industry’s best overall customer value. Our controllers and inverters have set new standards in performance, innovative features, quality and reliability. Our products are manufactured in a fully automated world-class ISO 9001 facility. Our Quality Control includes 100% functional testing on every product, using the latest computerised test equipment and processes.
Morningstar’s products are marketed through 230 highly qualified distributors in 89 countries. Our authorised distributors are typically the leading solar distributors in their respective country.
PES: Just how competitive is your corner of the solar/PV market? And similarly, what’s your on-the-ground assessment of sector growth in Europe?
LG: Off-grid charge controllers and inverters are highly competitive, like most all of the PV market. But Morningstar’s market positioning is as a long-term, dependable supplier/partner providing higher quality, reliability and performance. This distinguishes Morningstar from our competitors, who often compete with low prices and low quality products, and often exit the market after only a few years in business.
Since the charge controller is typically less than 10% of the overall PV system costs, it is very cost-effective to pay a slightly higher price for a reliable product and avoid very expensive trips to remote sites to repair or replace a failed controller. One trip to the field would be much more expensive than the incremental cost of a high quality charge controller and would avoid power interruption to critical load equipment.
Sector growth in Europe has been only 5-10% per year due to the focus on the grid-tie market and the sluggish economy. Our European customers also purchase Morningstar products for re-exporting to Africa and the Middle East.
