South Korea’s Hanwha Q Cells topped the US residential solar module market in the first quarter, industry data showed Aug, 20.

Hanwha Q Cell’s market share in the sector stood at 27 percent in the first three months of the year, sharply up 15.4 percentage points from a year earlier, according to data compiled by energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.

“The solar power market in the US is growing steadily with rising demand from the western coast, where it has long sunshine hours,” a Hanwha Q Cells spokesman said. “We’ve been focusing on selling products with high energy efficiency.”

Hanwha Q Cells has been accelerating its overseas push in recent years. Last year, the company was the No. 1 player in countries like Germany, Britain and Japan.

In the early 2010s, Hanwha Group took over Q-Cells, a German solar panel maker, to beef up its presence in the global solar cell and panel industry.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)