Sungrow turns to Samsung SDI battery cells to sustain its energy storage business

Sungrow, a Chinese maker of solar inverters and battery storage systems, plans to buy battery cells from South Korea's Samsung SDI, mainly to keep supplying home and grid battery systems to the U.S. market. Neither company has confirmed contract size or timing, but the deal appears tied to a larger agreement reported in South Korea worth trillions of won over three years, with several gigawatt-hours of batteries supplied annually.

The move matters because U.S. rules are tightening around battery components linked to China, and companies that sell storage equipment here are looking for ways around that. Samsung SDI has been converting part of a battery plant in Indiana, run jointly with Stellantis, from electric-vehicle batteries to the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) type used in home and grid storage, with production expected to start in late 2026. It's not yet confirmed whether the cells for Sungrow would come from that U.S. plant specifically.

For homeowners, this is mostly a supply-chain story rather than an immediate change to available products or prices. Sungrow has said it has no plans to build its own manufacturing in the U.S., so it's leaning on partners like Samsung SDI to keep batteries flowing here as trade rules shift. If you're considering a battery storage system, the practical takeaway is that where the cells and finished systems come from could keep changing over the next year or two, which may affect pricing, availability, or eligibility for certain incentives tied to where equipment is made.