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.
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Company profile
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.
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History
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.
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.
As part of the company's transformation, the Supervisory Board of SMA reduced the number of managing board members. Lydia Sommer left the board in February 2015, and Martin Kinne in December 2015. From January 2016, the managing board of SMA comprised the following members: Roland Grebe (Board Member for Human Resources and IT), Dr.-Ing. Juergen Reinert (Board Member for Operations and Technology), Pierre-Pascal Urbon (Chief Executive Officer, Board Member for Finance/Legal and Sales).
Roland Grebe stepped down from the managing board as per December 31, 2016. As of January 1, 2017, the Managing Board of SMA Solar Technology AG comprises the following members: Ulrich Hadding (Board Member for Finance, Human Resources and Legal; contract until 2019), Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Reinert (Deputy CEO, Board Member for Technology and Operations; contract until 2019), Pierre-Pascal Urbon (CEO, Board Member for Sales and Service; contract until 2022).<ref>http://www.sma.de/en/newsroom/current-news/news-details/news/16011-sma-solar-technology-changes-board-positions.html<ref>
Products
SMA sells photovoltaic solar inverters as product families using the Sunny Boy name for home systems, Sunny Tripower for medium-sized plants through the multi-megawatt range and Sunny Central for ground-mounted systems and solar farms, often from 500 kW to the several-megawatt range for feeding into the utility grid. SMA also produces the Sunny Island for independent, stand-alone systems as well as off-grid and on-grid battery systems and the Sunny Boy Smart Energy and the Sunny Boy Storage for grid-tied battery systems. The inverter products are complemented by components for energy management, system monitoring and data analysis.
Stock
The company's stock shares have been listed on the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since June 27, 2008. The company's stock has been qualified for the technology index TecDax. Since September 2008, the stock has been part of ÖkoDAX and was listed in 2009 in the 30 Index Global photovoltaic. Currently, 25 percent of the shares are in free float.
Awards
In 2000, SMA was the winner in the Grand Prix of the middle class of the Oskar Patzelt Foundation Award and a Premier-finalist in 2004. In 2008, SMA was awarded the German Fairness Award. In 2010, SMA reached Germany's second place in the category of companies 2,001-5,000 employees and third place among European companies with more than 500 employees. For both 2011 and 2012 the company won Germany's Best Employer in the category of companies over 5,001 employees. SMA was also regarded as a Top Employer for Engineers in 2011.
Moreover, SMA Solar Factory 1 because of its CO 2 neutral-production was awarded the Energy Efficiency Award of 2010 from the German Energy Agency and was chosen for the 2011 Germany - Land of Ideas award.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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