SMA Group Accounts for More than a Third of Total Operational PV in the U.S., Canada and Mexico

ROCKLIN, Calif., Nov. 4, 2015—SMA has affirmed its status as the preferred PV inverter solutions provider in North America by reaching 7.5 GW of installed inverter capacity. Leading researchers calculate the U.S. installed base to be more than 20 GW as of the end of the first half of 2015, and the total North American market to be near 22 GW over the same time frame. That means more than a third of all PV systems installed in the U.S., Canada and Mexico are powered by SMA inverters. Combined, they produce enough energy to provide roughly 1.5 million average American homes with clean, renewable energy. These milestones are the result of SMAs long-standing—and on-going—commitment to the North American PV market.

"SMA entered North America nearly 15 years ago and we are proud to have created hundreds of new jobs here," said Pierre-Pascal Urbon, SMA chief executive officer. "SMA has a long-standing commitment to this market and we will continue to produce high-quality inverters and to serve local PV designers, installers, developers, owners and EPCs well into the future."

The companys North American sales and service operations were launched in 2001 with the founding of SMA America in Grass Valley, California. In 2009, SMA opened a production facility in Denver, which was the second largest solar inverter manufacturing plant in the world at the time. A year later, SMA Canada was founded to support the growing Ontario market. SMA furthered its commitment to North America with the formation of the U.S. Technology Group in 2013, also located in Denver, which includes product development and local engineering. That same year, SMA opened the doors to its Solar Monitoring Center in support of its entry into the O&M market.

To date, nearly half a million SMA inverters have been selected for the most productive, technologically advanced PV systems in North America, making SMA the preferred inverter supplier for projects of all sizes and applications.

"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. "By partnering with SMA, they have made a commitment to lasting reliability and productivity, which are vital for all PV systems. Our inverters fulfill the highest quality standards and perform excellently even under the harshest conditions."

About SMA
The SMA Group with sales of more than €800 million in 2014 is the global market leader for solar inverters, a key component of all PV plants and offers innovative key technologies for future power supply structures. It is headquartered in Niestetal, near Kassel, Germany, and is represented in 19 countries. The Group employs more than 4,000 people worldwide. SMA has an extensive range of products, which offers the right inverters for all module types and plant sizes; for small residential systems as well as large scale plants, grid-connected photovoltaic systems as well as off-grid and hybrid systems. The technology is protected by 740 patents and utility models worldwide. The range of services is supplemented by comprehensive services and operational management of large-scale PV power plants. Since 2008, the Groups parent company, SMA Solar Technology AG, has been listed on the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (S92) and also in the TecDAX index. www.SMA-America.com