It’s been a big couple of months for solar inverter manufacturer SMA, with a number of impressive milestones reached.
The company announced earlier today it had surpassed 7.5 GW of installed inverter capacity in North America. This is enough capacity to supply the power needs of approximately 1.5 million average American households.
With total North American installed inverter capacity of nearly 22 GW, SMA says this means more than a third of all solar power systems in the U.S., Canada and Mexico feature SMA inverters.
The company says nearly half a million SMA inverters have been installed in North America since it entered that market 15 years ago.
“We are honored that so many PV professionals have trusted SMA for the most critical part of their power plants,” said Marko Wittich, SMA executive vice president of sales for the Americas region.
The 8 and 9GW milestones may not be too far away. In the Americas, solar inverter sales are expected to grow by more than 35% in 2016
Other milestones announced by the company since the beginning of October include reaching 1 gigawatt of solar inverter sales in Thailand, 1 gigawatt in Japan and also 1 gigawatt in India.
SMA is headquartered in Niestetal, near Kassel, Germany, and is represented in 21 countries; including Australia where SMA solar inverters are a popular choice for home solar panel systems and commercial solar projects. The company apparently reached a 1 gigawatt installed capacity milestone in Australia some time ago.
One of the pioneers of solar inverter manufacturing, SMA had been struggling in recent years in the face of intense competition and cut-throat pricing. However the company has stood its ground and didn’t compromise on quality; but focused on internal restructuring.
That effort appears to have paid off; helped along by increased demand – it seems it’s sunny days again for SMA, with the company returning to profitability earlier than anticipated and predicting sales of EUR850 million to EUR900 million for the current fiscal year.
At the end of Q3 this year, SMA had increased sales by more than 20% compared to the same period last year.
