PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

SMA opens new branch in Peking

At the end of October, the German inverter company SMA Regelsysteme GmbH opened a new branch office in Peking. The new division, known as SMA Regelsysteme GmbH Beijing Representative Office, was officially started during the Smart Building Conference.

	© SMA Regelsysteme GmbH
Sunny days in Beijing: This 50 kW system uses six Sunny Boy 5000 TL on-grid inverters from SMA.

Like its American subsidiary SMA Americas, ownership of the Chinese company is split equally between the inverter manufacturer and its sales partner Rosendahl Energietechnik GmbH based in Krefeld, Germany.

The new office's focus will be training and technical support for the company's Chinese project and sales partners, explains Oussama Chehab, who is in charge of international sales at Rosendahl, but the sales coordination of SMA solar components will continue to originate in Germany. Moreover, SMA has no plans to build an inverter factory in China for the time being, he says.

SMA wants to offer its entire PV product line in China. That includes components for stand-alone electricity production – for instance, the Sunny Island 4500 battery inverter and the Sunny Island System Kit – in addition to on-grid inverters like the Sunny Boy and Sunny Central series. Chehab did not disclose projected turnover figures for 2004. Next year, the number of employees at the new office is planned to increase from its current three to six.

Since July, SMA has been equipping PV systems in China with its inverters. But it was only at the end of October that a 50 kW system with six transformerless 4.6 kW Sunny Boy 5000 TL devices went on line in Peking as a part of a demonstration project funded by the Chinese government. SMA has plans to construct other large-scale projects with powers between 50 and 100 kW at the beginning of 2004.

Two years ago, SMA, together with the Changzhou Traction Center, co-founded the Chinese subsidiary Changzhou SMA Electronics Co. Ltd. Yet Chehab says this joint venture has »nothing to do with PV,« but rather is a sales office for the company's railway components, which are still manufactured in Germany.

According to Chehab, SMA is planning to open additional branch offices abroad, for instance in Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia. The company's sales manager says a decision on future office locations will be made by the end of 2004.