The rebirth of SolarMax has been completed with the company now looking to rebuild European sales channels and reputation in the market. The company, now owned by SoMa Solar Holding, will focus on the Swiss and German market. The new SolarMax will initially focus on string inverters with plans to integrate home energy management into its portfolio.
SolarMax also intends to introduce central inverters into the market, which was under development by the former parent company Sputnik Engineering team in Switzerland, when it went of business in November 2014.
"We want first focus on the string inverter market in Europe, mainly Germany and Switzerland," SolarMax CEO Mathias Mader told pv magazine. "Demand is very good, particularly with single-phase inverters, "said Mader. String inverter demand is particularly strong due to homeowners and businesses seeking to repower existing array.
SolarMax has also revealed to pv magazine that the first requests for OEM production have also begun to come in.
"In June we had initially continued production in Switzerland with around 30 employees," said Mader in an interview. "In July and August the production equipment was relocated to Bavaria and since September 1, we now produce in Burgau [in Germanys south]. The company now has approximately 60 employees. The capacity of production in Burgau stands at 200 MW a year, but could be increased to up to 700 MW in the short term.
CEO Mader reported that there have been initial challenges in rebuilding reputation and trust among the installer community and with reestablishing customer service capabilities. SolarMax has not assumed responsibility for product warranties provided under the previous parent company Sputnik Engineering.
SolarMax reports that it continues to enjoy good market share in Switzerland, where strong interest remains in its product offerings. The company has sold around 35 MW of inverters thus far this year.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.