SMA POWER ON Event: SMA CEO J. Reinert über den PV-Markt sowie Trends für Home und Business Lösungen

Welcome to the world's leading specialist for photovoltaic system technology. Welcome to an exciting new virtual format. Welcome to Niestetal, Germany. Energy covers changes – that's our motto. We are SMA Solar Technology AG and present our brand new virtual format: Let's Talk Energy Power. We thank you for tuning in and promise to inspire you. And here is your moderator, Kim Sie von Reischach.

Hello and a warm welcome to all ladies and gentlemen, dear viewers. I may give you a very, very warm welcome to Let's Talk Energy Power, the brand new virtual format from SMA. Yes, we are live today from the SMA headquarters in Niestetal, and I am very pleased to welcome viewers from the entire German-speaking region. In the next four and a half hours, we have a lot in store for you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will exchange ideas with experts, we will invite you to a world premiere, and we will also give you an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the Solar Academy, all directly from your seat. My name is Kim Sie von Reischach, I am a freelance moderator, and I am very pleased that we can spend the afternoon together today.

Now let's see if you have been paying attention, because we are going straight on with this interactive tool: a word cloud. You all know it. You will enter a word in our interactive area below, and the question I am asking now, which you should answer with one word, is: What do you expect from today? Please answer that question with one word. Are you looking forward to it? Joy, excitement, nervousness, maybe sun? The sun is shining a bit in my eyes, let me step back a bit so you can see better. So what possibilities? Let's see what will appear in this word cloud. Perhaps information? High-tech? Solar energy? What do you expect from today? In a few seconds the word cloud will appear. Please enter a word in the interactive area, and there it is: Innovation, we definitely have that in our luggage today. I can reassure you. Information and news we certainly have with us too. Info, exactly. Curious, I am also very curious. It will be a really exciting afternoon. Future ideas, we will present today. Development and ShadeFix will also be a topic today. What else? Innovations, innovations. Together with the info, the largest words in our word cloud. So I can reassure you: Information, innovation, and news are definitely on the agenda today.

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we now come to the Power Talk. Ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to introduce my guests on the stage. A warm welcome to the CEO of SMA Solar Technology AG, Dr. Jürgen Reinert. Jürgen, nice to have you here. You know him. And a warm welcome to all installers and distributors. We are very glad to have you with us and hope it will be a great program. We have a lot in store. Then I would like to welcome the Executive Vice President Unit Home and Business Solutions, warmly welcome, Nick Morbach. Nice that you are here. Thank you, Kim. Welcome from my side. We all regret that we couldn't do the Intersolar this year and couldn't see each other live, but it's all the nicer that you are here with us in this virtual format. Warm welcome. And I would like to welcome the Head of Product Management Home and Business Solutions, Matthias Strippe. Hello, Chiemsee. Hello everyone. Hello, it's a pleasure to be here today. I may begin with you. Let's take a look back at the past year 2019 and at the past half year 2020. What were the highlights for you?

One final question from me before we get to the questions from the viewers. Sustainability is of course a very big topic at the moment, so big that we even have a session today on what sustainability means for SMA.

Absolutely. Then let's see what questions have come in from the viewers. We look at our monitor and wait for the questions that have come in from the viewers from the entire German-speaking region for you. So I have a question about storage systems: Do you think this trend will continue? Will it act as a driver only for larger markets or also for smaller ones?

Let's briefly talk about the PV solar cap for two minutes. The decision has now been made. What effects do you see for the German solar market?

A final question: What are the next steps in energy management? Will your OS platform NX OS for energy management be further developed?

Thank you very much. For any further questions that may come in for the CEO, they will of course be answered afterwards as well. But now we first turn to the next topic. We've just heard about the very complex overall situation. What about SMA's positioning? Is it always well positioned? Tell us why.

Joking aside, Jürgen mentioned earlier that the three Ds are a decisive factor in our actions and guide us. When we look at the power supply today as it largely still is, we talk about centralized supply with nuclear, gas, and coal power plants. Decarbonization, the first D, cannot take place with those. That doesn't work. So we need renewables. Renewables are usually, except for some large centralized plants, decentralized, and that brings enormous complexity that needs to be managed. And here comes the famous digitalization into play. But what is digitalization? It's on everyone's lips, but what is digitalization for us? Jürgen told us: to make the complex world of renewables manageable. Storage is a very important medium. We heard earlier that it makes a lot of sense with renewables and is a must-have to integrate, to make tradable, to manage. Vehicles make no sense without renewable supply. To integrate them into private households but also into fleet management of a company, being able to refuel at home, at public charging stations, and to bill it all, etc. This very complex structure is one of our goals, and among other things, our software platform NX OS manages it, not for us but for the end customer so that they get the best use out of it and the most efficient use of their self-generated energy, and especially for our installers who have to install it. The complexity is increasing, and our goal is to make this complex world as simple as possible in the sessions we have now afterwards.

Let's pick up again on the second point, I think it was digitalization 1 and 2, digitalization of energy use for customers. How is it set up here? In my opinion, to offer comprehensive systems, you first need a huge portfolio.

And that's how it is, we have a very large portfolio because we are not only active in all segments but also have our products globally positioned in our portfolio. But we don't want this complexity to pass on to the user; instead, we want to minimize the complexity inherently within our solution offering. Naturally, we have all the components that are ultimately needed for a complete solution in the portfolio. Starting with the inverter, which is our core component, the heart of the photovoltaic system, but also the heart and a core element of SMA's DNA. That will remain our core element, and we will continuously develop it and enrich it with many functions already integrated into the inverter, for example, our shade management system ShadeFix integrated, the support with Smart Connected integrated in the inverter, and it will also be part of future generations of the energy management system, further reducing the need for additional devices. Integration is a very important part of our portfolio strategy and will significantly simplify it for the installer and also for the distributor, for example in warehousing with fewer components.

Then finally the storage aspects come in. Here we have a dual strategy, one might say: on the one hand, we have our own storage in our own brand in the portfolio, especially today in the business segment, but also ensure compatibility of our systems with quality providers in the market, so that the user has the flexibility to choose this storage or that storage, but it works within the SMA system with SMA energy management and SMA storage inverter. And are there additional solutions to the components just mentioned? Of course, as you already heard from Jürgen, one of the questions was also about our background software: the NX OS system is the platform on which, across segments from large-scale to business down to home, we set up the energy management system. It is a software operating system platform, one could say. And here we will continuously and in relatively short cycles bring new features and updates to optimize the energy management in all segments. Solar charging, we also had the topic of e-vehicles, still a rather small topic but it will certainly grow quickly and become big. The whole topic of charging is an element. Without a sufficiently good charging infrastructure, vehicles won't work. And here we have, and will hear more later, various components: the SMA Charger, DC charger in the portfolio now very fresh, but also especially with the NX OS platform, the integration of energy management and what is still needed around it, so that we again come to a complete solution for e-vehicles.

The last question I have is the question about simplification: simple solutions for PV installers that make it easier for them to work with your system. Can you briefly promise that?

You can quickly address the last two points. One, solar heating, sector integration of electric heating is a key topic, and marketing, especially in Germany now with SMA Spot, which we have and will develop further beyond the business segment. Another aspect: the pyramid of our portfolio – the basis are the components and systems, and as I said, the components are enriched with many functions; it's not a pure inverter. For example, we have the service layer for our customers, services and software as an integral part to bring everything together as the management system, or to supply the components so that they function in the system, but also to have integration into private households. We also offer other things – I'll briefly mention a few words. Especially for the installer, whose world is becoming more complex, we have a professional support landscape, a training landscape that helps him in planning, already in the acquisition phase, during installation, and finally in operation of the entire system and maintenance. Matthias and also later the Blue Rock in our session will go into more detail. China? We talk about that in the app session.

Then let's take a look in the remaining about three minutes at what questions have come in from our viewers in the German-speaking region for Nick Morbach. Okay. And to be honest, I miss inverters in your portfolio. Are you working on that? When will the approvals for the BYD Lontion storage systems in connection with the SP Storage 3.7 to 5.00 come? A new charger is interesting, but I rarely install such large systems. What is the price compared to Q1? Your new app Sunny 360 looks good; when will it be available?

Clear answer: Yes, our current storage portfolio is relatively broad because it's all DC-coupled systems. That is a good and correct solution. But we clearly see the market demand and we are working intensively on hybrid solutions in the home and business area, especially in the home area, and will come to market with the corresponding products over the next year. Regarding the approvals for BYD systems, tests are currently running hot in our labs for all these compatibilities with the new storage systems that manufacturers have brought to market. We have the claim to ensure quality, so that it really works in the overall system. That is a considerable effort, and we are working intensively on it. The new BYD storage system will be approved in the next few weeks, without me being able to give an exact date. Regarding the price, we have definitely set a good pricing for the product. The installers and distributors have the pricing; go to your dealer and ask. I am sure you will be surprised because the price point is really good, especially compared to the competition. The new Sunny 360 app is available. The rollout in different regions: in the German-speaking region it is available. So for those of you listening, you can download it now. It is a professional app for end users. We have seen that end users don't use it much, but for the professional user like installers, download it and use it, it's great.

Then I would say perfect timing. Thank you for the further questions that may come in; Nick will answer them by email later. And with that, we are now already at Matthias. Matthias, let's take a closer look at specific products. You have some highlights that are being presented today. Can you briefly tell us what we can look forward to?

Exactly, thank you Kim for the transition. You just mentioned products, that's the keyword. But what we have prepared is much more a complete solution. So we will not talk about individual products but rather the whole individual products that Denic mentioned and Jürgen mentioned in the entire environment we are in. At SMA, we have undergone the transformation to offer the entire system, which is a key differentiator from our competitive landscape. I will focus strongly on that. But first, I want to start with something we already had a question about: a product that is integrated into our solution, and that is the new Sunny Tripower C1, our new flagship, we can say, for commercial PV systems with 110 kW power. A product whose advantages rest on three pillars, three key messages: more possibilities, more integration, and more performance. Now some may ask what that means concretely for me. We have prepared a nice product video, and I would like to play it to answer those questions.

The new Sunny Tripower C1 brings more flexibility to system design. System planners benefit from the greatest possible flexibility in string sizing, making different commercial systems up to the megawatt range particularly easy and convenient to realize. As a central component of the Energy System Business, the SMA inverter enables modular expansion according to needs, everything coordinated and from a single source. Systems with the Sunny Tripower can be installed without a DC combiner box, which ensures particularly fast installation and commissioning. The intelligent and integrated SMA features optimize energy yields from the first day and over the entire lifetime of the system.

A great video, Matthias, thank you very much. We'll dive a little deeper into the material of the culture later. So I'd say let's put that aside for now and talk next about charging solutions for electric vehicles and stationary storage systems. What do you have on board?

We just heard the importance and the significance of the topic of storage and electromobility, which will increase rapidly in the future. Especially now, looking at the German market, the federal government has created incentives to move consumers more into electromobility. That will lead to the need to offer charging solutions accordingly. As we mentioned and announced last year at Intersolar, we have a charging solution for the home sector in our portfolio – seen here on the slide on the left: our SMA Charger, which works in conjunction with the SMA Home Manager. That is the essential feature and the key differentiator again from our competitive landscape. Because we consider the entire system. A charging solution, a wall box, there are many on the market, but the crucial thing is to integrate it intelligently into the system – into your own home system or also into commercial systems, which I will address later. The intelligence allows functions like fast charging or weather-prediction-based charging with priority on PV energy, so that vehicles are charged whenever PV energy is available, which makes sense to be CO2 neutral, as Nick also mentioned. Complementing this, we have a novelty today: a charging solution for commercial applications, for fleet management, which Denic and Jürgen mentioned earlier. Here the requirements are different: many vehicles charging simultaneously in a company needs to be well managed, and the billing system behind it needs to be simplified. All these are features and added values that SMA offers beyond the pure product. If we then look at mobile storage in vehicles and come to stationary storage, energy management and services, SMA is a pioneer here, especially in the commercial sector. Already last year we introduced a storage system for commercial use with the Sunny Tripower Storage 60 kW system with our own storage from SMA. As I said, we have a dual track: own storage and storage from other manufacturers that can be combined with us. This opens up new use cases for our customers, like peak shaving to reduce energy costs for businesses, increasing self-consumption by storing excess solar energy and using it in the evening, and many other use cases.

Those will be experienced today through two apps. One of them is the new Sunny 360. There are advantages for installers. Can you briefly touch on that before we move to the questions from the viewers?

Yes, exactly. We've heard the three Ds, and one of them is digitalization. The Sunny 360 app – in English the 360-degree app – it's a name. We want to map the entire process of a customer project for the installer, from planning, on-site system design, commissioning of the inverter, to service. We have prepared a small clip to show.

[Video clip about Sunny 360 app – no spoken content, just music]

That was the clip for the pros. What about the end customers? Do you have something for them too?

Yes, exactly. We already mentioned it briefly earlier: that is the app for the installer, but we will also soon release an app for the end customer, providing all information about the solar system in a well-prepared way, especially for electric vehicles. More about that in the sessions by our colleague Benjamin Blaurock later this afternoon.

Then let's see in the remaining two minutes and twelve seconds what questions have come in for you, dear Matthias. We have to filter a bit because they have to be answered in the short time. Okay. What does the name suggest? Is the C1 now an old model? The C1 remains in the program. Is the planning tool Sunny Design applicable from the start? Absolutely, yes. The answer of the year: from the start. Now you can start doing designs in the web tool Sunny Design, everything is integrated, you can get started. The last question: the price? What about the price? I can't answer that... well, I have to think if I can take the responsibility. We have definitely set a good pricing for the product. The installers and distributors have the pricing; go to your dealer and ask. I am sure you will be surprised because the price point is really good, especially compared to the competition.

Great. Then I would like to thank you as well. The further questions that come in for Matthias will be answered by email afterwards. At this point, also a note: if you have general questions about SMA, our service team is right here in our new studio today, and they will answer any questions you may have throughout the day. And with that, I come to the conclusion of this Power Talk and may finally ask for a very short statement in a lightning round from the three of you. Jürgen, I'll begin with you.

A great statement, Matthias. I would like to add to that. As we said, we are your partner, and I am convinced that with the portfolio we have prepared for you, with the solutions we have, we can offer exactly the right thing for you as a reliable partner by your side. And I am convinced that I have whetted your appetite for what is still to come this afternoon in the individual sessions. Stay tuned.

A perfect transition. Thank you very much, dear Matthias. A heartfelt thank you to my gentlemen for the Power Talk. Thank you very much for the insights. I thank you very much. We'll take a short break and see you soon here at Let's Talk Energy Power.