Sputnik announces restructuring moves to remain competitive
Sputnik Engineering AG (SolarMax) has announced that it will undergo a restructuring to meet the current challenges of the market and to ensure the company's future success. The main focus will be on the European and USA markets as well as optimising existing process and cost structures. The European markets will be consolidated with remaining offices expected to cover multi regions. The sales teams will be enlarged and the office locations will be treated as competence centres.
"As a result of cuts regarding the subsidy programs, trading obstacles, competition from the Far East, and the insecure economic situation in some countries, the photovoltaics market performed worse than expected this year," says Christoph von Bergen, CEO of Sputnik Engineering AG. "The photovoltaics industry is in upheaval, but there still is an enormous potential in the future. Therefore, flexibility and the ability to adapt are essential factors for the survival of a company in today's PV environment."
The SolarMax inverter range is subject to continuous development as well as adaptations to meet the demands of the market. Thanks to innovative semiconductor materials (SiC/GaN), efficiency is increased making photovoltaic power plants more economic. The focus is now on topics such as storage technologies and load management solutions. SolarMax will look at developing solutions for optimizing self-consumption and storing solar power in the private customer segment, for example with the P-Battery device. First field tests with battery storage and in the field of intelligently switching loads have already been performed.
The majority of grid operators in European countries are requesting three-phase feed-in of the inverters into the power grid. In order to meet this requirement, SolarMax's portfolio includes several three-phase MT series string inverters in the 6-15kW performance range. Further devices will be added soon in order to ideally cover the demand in the private customer segment.
The commercial and industrial large-scale systems segment is also characterized by new trends, as even more power plants with an output of up to 5MW are being frequently built with decentralized string instead of central inverters. The SolarMax MT series can also be used for such plants. Additionally, SolarMax is planning on extending the product portfolio by a new device in the 30kW performance class in order to flexibly implement decentralized large-scale power plants in line with future trends.
"SolarMax delivers Swiss quality products and is a competent and reliable partner with more than 20 years of experience in the PV market. By means of the strategic re-orientation and our future products, we are adapting our structure to the new market perspectives and move stronger towards the future. Currently, we believe that the industry will return to growth even in Europe as of 2014," says von Bergen.
