Most buyers who come to China for solar equipment or backup power arrive looking for one product and leave needing three. A factory needs standby generation. The same factory later needs site lighting. A distributor starts with portable power stations and ends up asking about panels. These are different machines, but they share a supply base, a set of component risks and a shipping profile, and buying them as separate unrelated purchases is how budgets get wasted.
This page is the hub. It explains what each family of equipment is actually for, helps you work out which one you need, and then sends you to a detailed guide for that product. If you already know what you want, use the table below and go straight to the relevant guide.
The four families, and what each is actually for
| Family | It solves | Typical buyer | Go deeper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standby and prime generators | Power when the grid is absent or unreliable, for hours or continuously | Factories, mines, hospitals, construction sites, telecom | industrial diesel generator sourcing guide |
| Solar street and area lighting | Lighting roads, compounds and perimeter without trenching a grid connection | Municipalities, contractors, estates, industrial parks | solar street light sourcing guide |
| Folding and portable solar panels | Charging and topping up where there is no mains supply | Distributors, outdoor and emergency markets, camps | foldable solar panel sourcing guide |
| Portable power stations and storage | Silent, transportable power for electronics and small loads | Retail and distribution brands, emergency preparedness, outdoor | portable power station sourcing guide |
Which one do you actually need
The most expensive mistake in this category is buying the wrong family rather than the wrong brand. Someone who needs a machine to run a plant for eight hours buys a battery system that cannot. Someone who needs silent overnight power for electronics buys a diesel set that none of the neighbours will tolerate. Start from the load and the hours, not from the product.
| Your situation | Usually the right answer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Run machinery or a whole building for hours on end | Diesel generator sized on prime rating | Storage cannot economically cover sustained large loads |
| Keep lights, communications and electronics running quietly overnight | Portable power station or battery storage | Silent, no fuel logistics, sized for modest loads |
| Light a road, compound or perimeter where there is no grid | Solar street light, sized for latitude and weather | No trenching, no running cost, autonomous per pole |
| Recharge in the field where there is no mains | Folding solar panel matched to the device or station | Portable generation where weight and pack size matter |
| A site that needs all of it | Generation plus storage plus solar, sized as one system | Hybrid designs cut fuel cost and generator hours |
The question that decides it. How many watts, for how many hours, and how often. Write those three numbers down before you look at a single product page. Every specification downstream — battery capacity, generator rating, panel wattage, pole count — is arithmetic from those three numbers, and suppliers will happily do the arithmetic for you in whichever direction makes their product look best.
The rules that apply to all four
Across every family in this hub, the same three rules decide whether the equipment is still working in year three.
Specify the component, not the category. A generator is an engine and an alternator. A solar light is a panel, a battery and a controller. A power station is cells, an inverter and a BMS. Two products with the same headline number can be entirely different machines underneath, and the headline number is the one thing every supplier quotes while the components are the things they quietly vary.
Size for the worst case, not the average. A tropical monsoon coast, a highland winter, a site at altitude, a roof in full sun — the rating that works in a catalogue works in the conditions the catalogue assumed. State your conditions and make the supplier size against them.
Tie payment to proof. On a generator that means a witnessed load-bank test. On a solar light it means a charge and discharge cycle and a verified battery. On a power station it means cell brand and capacity confirmation. Whatever the product, there is one test that proves it does what the invoice says, and the balance payment should wait for that test.
Where suppliers quietly cut corners
The patterns repeat across the whole category, and they are all invisible from outside the housing. Capacity is reduced — a smaller battery, fewer amp-hours, a lower grade of cell — because capacity is the largest cost in the system. Ratings are quoted at their most flattering definition, such as standby instead of prime, or peak instead of continuous. Certificates are borrowed rather than held. Controllers and components named in the quote are substituted for cheaper equivalents during production. None of this is unusual, and almost all of it is detectable before you pay if someone looks.
The full audit procedure we use is set out here: how to verify a Chinese factory is real.
Shipping: lithium changes the plan
Three of the four families in this hub contain lithium batteries, which makes them dangerous goods regardless of whether the battery is installed in the product or packed alongside it. That means classification, packaging, labelling and documentation — commonly including a UN 38.3 test summary — and it means carriers and ports will refuse a shipment that is not in order. This is the single most common reason power equipment containers are held, and it has nothing to do with product quality. Plan it before production finishes, not after the container is packed.
Generators are the opposite problem: heavy, tall, and often over-height, which makes packing, bracing and weight distribution the whole game. Ask about mixing models in a high-cube container, because freight per unit is a meaningful share of landed cost on heavy equipment.
Power equipment for larger projects
On bigger projects, power is rarely a standalone purchase. A bottling plant needs standby generation sized to the line rather than to the building. A remote accommodation camp needs generation, storage and lighting designed together, because fuel delivery may be harder than the equipment itself. If you are budgeting power as part of a larger project, these two guides cover the surrounding scope: mineral water plant sourcing guide and container house sourcing guide.
Region-specific requirements are covered in the Africa sourcing guides, the Asia sourcing guides and the Oceania sourcing guides.
Frequently asked questions
Should I buy a generator or a solar and battery system?
It depends on the load and the hours. Sustained large loads — motors, plant, compressors — still favour generation, because storage at that scale is expensive. Modest loads that run quietly and intermittently favour storage and solar. Many sites end up with both, using storage to cut generator hours and fuel cost.
Is solar equipment from China reliable?
The supply base can build to any standard you are willing to pay for, and that is the honest answer. Reliability problems in this category are usually specification problems — an undersized battery, a controller substituted for a cheaper one, a rating quoted at its flattering definition — rather than outright manufacturing failure. Specify the components and verify them before shipment.
What is the most common mistake buyers make?
Buying on the headline number. Kilowatts, lumens, amp-hours and watts are all quoted at whatever definition suits the seller, and none of them tell you what is inside. Ask for an itemised component list — engine and alternator, cell brand and capacity, panel wattage and controller type — and compare that rather than the summary figure.
Can batteries be shipped inside the equipment?
Often yes, but the shipment is still a dangerous-goods shipment needing correct classification, packaging, labelling and documentation, typically including a UN 38.3 test summary. Confirm requirements with your forwarder before production ends, because paperwork problems hold containers at origin.
Do I need different equipment for a tropical climate?
Yes, in the specification rather than in the product. Batteries and engines derate in heat, refrigeration and electronics need the right ambient class, coastal sites need corrosion protection, and anything solar needs to be sized for your worst weather rather than your best. State your conditions and make the supplier size against them.
How we help
Everything in this hub is buyable directly if you know what you are looking at. What we add is the part that happens before the money moves: turning your load and hours into a specification, identifying which component in each quote is the one being quietly reduced, auditing the factory, witnessing the test, and getting the lithium documentation right so the container actually sails. If you would like us to look at quotes you already have, send them over — telling you which one is cheaper for a reason is usually a short conversation.
Send us your power requirement
Or message us on WhatsApp with your load, hours and destination port: start a WhatsApp chat.
Related: China sourcing agent guide 2026, the categories we cover on sourcing categories, and our scope on sourcing services.