Sourcing solar, battery and renewable energy products from China

A category where the installation decides the requirements

Solar panels, inverters, home battery systems, EV charge points and heat pumps are all bought as products and used as installations. That distinction matters more here than in almost any other category, because what a UK installer can legally connect and commission is a narrower set than what a factory will sell you.

So the useful first question is not what does this cost, it is what will an installer accept, and what will the network operator or the scheme this product needs to satisfy require. A container of equipment nobody will install is worth less than nothing, because it also occupies your capital.

Electrical compliance, and the grid connection question

Everything in this category is an electrical product, so electrical safety and electromagnetic compatibility apply, with a technical file, declaration of conformity and correct marking behind them.

Grid-connected equipment carries a further layer: inverters and storage systems that export to or interact with the network have to satisfy the requirements applying to generation and storage connections, and the installer will need the appropriate documentation for the specific model. Confirm exactly which model has that documentation, because a family of products is often not uniformly covered.

This is the single most common way an imported inverter or battery system becomes unusable in the UK. The product is safe and well made and the paperwork does not support connection, and that cannot be resolved retrospectively.

Batteries bring their own regimes

A home storage system is a battery product, which means battery producer obligations on top of everything else: registration, tonnage and chemistry reporting, and marking requirements on the cells themselves.

Lithium cells also carry significant transport controls. Sea freight of large battery systems has specific packing, documentation and classification requirements, and air freight is heavily restricted. Confirm the shipping route before you plan around a delivery date.

Storage and handling in the UK matter too. Ask about state of charge on shipment, storage conditions and shelf life, because a battery system that sits in a warehouse for months is not in the same condition as one that ships promptly.

Certification schemes and what installers actually ask for

Beyond the legal minimum, much of this market runs on scheme membership and product listings, because installers and their customers rely on them for consumer protection and, where relevant, for access to incentives.

That means a product may need to appear on a recognised list for an installer to use it in a scheme-covered installation. Establish this before ordering rather than after, and ask your intended installer customers what they require, because they are the people whose acceptance decides whether the stock moves.

Ask for the specific certificates, check they name the exact model and variant, and verify them with the issuing body rather than accepting the PDF.

Long-life products need long-life suppliers

This equipment is sold with long warranties and performance expectations measured in years or decades. That means you are not only buying a product, you are taking on a support obligation that outlasts most supplier relationships.

Ask what the warranty actually covers, who honours it, and what happens if the manufacturer stops making the model or leaves the market. Ask about spare parts and firmware support over time. A warranty that depends on a factory still being interested in you in eight years is worth thinking about carefully.

Ask for degradation and performance data with the test basis behind it, not headline figures, and check the conditions those figures assume.

Practical order discipline

Confirm the exact model and variant, and get all documentation issued against that. Confirm connection and scheme requirements with an installer before committing. Verify certificates independently.

Then specify the physical side properly: mounting hardware, connector types, cable specification, ingress protection for the intended location, and packaging that survives transit for heavy and fragile items.

Inspect before shipment with functional testing, not just visual checks, and keep the technical documentation, because as importer or own-brand supplier the obligation to produce it is yours.