SMA Solar Technology
 |
|
| Aktiengesellschaft | |
| Traded as | : S92 |
| Industry | Solar Technology |
| Founded | 1981 |
| Founder | Werner Kleinkauf, Günther Cramer (1952-2015), Peter Drews and Reiner Wettlaufer |
| Headquarters | Niestetal, Germany |
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Key people
|
Pierre-Pascal Urbon (CEO), Erik Ehrentraut (Chairman of the supervisory board) |
| Products | Inverters for solar energy systems |
| Revenue | € 946.7 million |
|
Number of employees
|
3,345 (December 2016) |
| Website | www |
SMA Solar Technology AG (meaning System, Mess and Anlagentechnik) is a German solar energy equipment supplier founded in 1981 and headquartered in Niestetal, Northern Hesse, Germany. SMA is a producer and manufacturer of solar inverters for photovoltaics systems with grid connection, off-grid power supply and backup operations.
The company has offices in 20 countries.
The company had 3,345 employees and generated worldwide sales of 946.7 million euros in 2016. The company is focused on the development and manufacture of technology systems for photovoltaics. Earlier, SMA included divisions for railway engineering-, and industrial computers. SMA is represented in Germany, the US, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, China, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, Belgium, India, Poland, Japan, UK, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
In 2011, SMA acquired one of its long-standing suppliers of electronic components, the Polish company dtw Sp oo. Then in 2012, SMA acquired a majority stake in the Chinese company Jiangsu Zeversolar New Energy Co., Ltd., a solar inverter manufacturer, followed by the solar inverter operations of the Danish company Danfoss in 2013. In April 2016, SMA acquired a 27% stake in Tigo Energy, Inc. in the context of a capital increase. SMA is also obtaining exclusive rights for worldwide sales of the smart module technology TS4 Retrofit.
The company was founded by Werner Kleinkauf and former board members Günther Cramer (1952-2015), Peter Drews and Reiner Wettlaufer as a separate company from the University of Kassel, subsequently renamed in 2004 to SMA Technologie AG. In 2006 Pierre-Pascal Urbon expanded the board. In June 2008, the name was changed to the present SMA Solar Technology in order to emphasize the focus on solar and the internationalization of the company. At the same time, the railway technology division was spun into SMA Railway Technology GmbH, which was sold to Chinese Bejing Dinghan in 2017.<ref>http://www.sma-railway.com/fileadmin/fm-dam/PR_New_Owner_SMA_Railway_2017_SMA_RT_01.pdf<ref>
Larger changes to the Board became effective after the Annual General Meeting in June 2009. One of the founders, Reiner Wettlaufer, joined the Supervisory Board. Company news came as Chief Technology Officer Roland Grebe and as Chief of Marketing & Sales, Marko Werner, was added. In April 2010, the Board also had Jürgen Dolle in Human Resources and Uwe Hertel in Operations. Since the 2011 Annual General Meeting, CEO Urbon became responsible for the strategic direction of the company and the continuation of internationalization. Two founders, Drews and Cramer, then joined to the Supervisory Board. Uwe Hertel retired from the Board in 2011. In November 2012, Lydia summer joined the board and took over the Finance and Law responsibilities from Urbon, who previously held this portfolio in a dual role as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Since May 2013, Lydia summer was also responsible for Human Resources and Labor Relations Director, after Jürgen Dolle was eliminated from the board. In January 2015 Martin Kinne took over board responsibility for Sales and Service.
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