A strange year in every respect is coming to an end. The global corona crisis has presented us all with unexpected challenges in recent months, which had to be mastered from one day to the next. In the process, however, we have also discovered opportunities and become acquainted with completely new - digital - ways of working together with customers, suppliers and partners. We would like to sincerely thank you for your trust in SMA, especially in a situation that is very challenging for all of us. Let us continue to drive the energy transition forward together in the coming year.

Can it also work digitally? As planning for this year’s Christmas party approached and it became clear that there was no way we would be able to meet “for real,” we were skeptical. Is it possible to get into the festive spirit when you’ve been sitting in front of the screen all day? But a few rounds of brainstorming later it was clear that this could work.

With Yammer, we have launched an enterprise social network (ESN) at SMA. This means that we use not only e-mail, chat functions and the telephone but also communities to discuss job-related issues within the company. A workshop with our Yammer admins and community manager Katharina Krentz from Bosch identified additional potential for lively communities.

Worldwide several million households enjoy safe, clean and cost-efficient energy from PV systems. Despite this, some online media sources claim that PV systems cause fires and put firefighters at grave risk. These articles spread fears about PV safety and are sometimes used to sell add-on safety products like module shutdown devices. Fortunately, these fears are unfounded.

You can incredibly efficiently reduce power consumption in your home using the Sunny Home Manager 2.0 and Edimax radio-controlled socket. The update makes the Edimax radio-controlled socket even more safe. Here you’ll learn why the update is important and what you need to know when updating.

Batteries are taking on an increasingly important role in decentralized energy systems and constitute the heart of off-grid systems. They can also be increasingly found in on-grid systems, where they can cut energy purchase costs by means of increased self-consumption or peak load shaving. Battery monitoring plays a key role here. After all, PV system operators want to know whether their systems are actually working as intended, because downtime costs money and causes hassle. That is why SMA is offering a comprehensive upgrade for battery analysis via ennexOS.

Approximately 1,000 people live in the village of Gutu in Nepal, about 800 kilometers away from the capital city of Kathmandu. There is no public electricity supply. Until recently, everybody shifted for himself: open fires to cook on and smoke in the house, a huge stock of candles or the hum of the diesel generator at the local metal processing company were a part of everyday life. Find out why the village inhabitants have been able to leave all this behind them.

In Australia, over 2 million households enjoy safe and clean energy from PV systems. Spread fears about PV safety are unfounded and used to sell add-on safety products. Comprehensive studies indicate existing PV systems are generally safe, fires are rare, and firefighters are still able to work safely.

The aim of PV system operators is to achieve the highest yield and most efficient operation. However, reality can be rather different. Some Distribution Network Operators (DNO’s) or local connection conditions for residential storage systems require a limitation on the maximum PV feed-in power at the grid-connection point. So, if a PV system produces too much energy, it has to be curtailed and the highly valuable resource, solar power, goes to waste. SMA’s forecast-based battery charging feature helps combat this.

People are becoming more and more mobile worldwide. A trend that not only presents considerable challenges for transportation planners, but also makes a significant contribution to climate change. How do we shape the sustainable and user-friendly mobility of the future? Annika Kunze, expert in e-mobility and energy solutions for supermarkets at SMA subsidiary coneva, presents her insights and forecasts.