Christiane Schumacher spent seven years working in SMA’s marketing team. She then sought fresh challenges and acquired experience in other industries and functional areas. But now she’s back at SMA, heading Business Development & Partner Management. In this interview, she tells us why she came back to us and what she has learned during her career.

Annabell Thomin’s job is to ensure that each and every SMA employee has the latest software on their PC. As an IT specialist, she is responsible for the internal software store, where employees can find all the programs they need for their everyday work. But Annabell started at the company in logistics.

When Dennis Halpape and Alexander Krug journeyed to East Africa for the first time with Kassel-based association TOGETHER – Hilfe für Uganda [Aid for Uganda]  to install a solar system twelve years ago, there was rarely any light to be found for many kilometers in every direction in the region of Kooki after sunset. Today, when it gets dark, there are significantly more lights on in the houses there.

It has been six years since the world’s nations agreed to limit man-made global warming to significantly below 2 °C in the landmark Paris Agreement. Since then, there have been many announcements and promises. But we are still waiting for concrete steps and effective measures to curb the climate crisis. It is crucial that COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow next week, finally brings a breakthrough. Before it is too late.

U.S. President Joe Biden has invited 40 international heads of government to a virtual climate summit he is hosting tomorrow, on Earth Day. An important initiative, because only swift joint action can stop the increasingly dramatic global warming to which the recently published UN climate report 2020 again attests.

SMA generated over one billion euros in sales and doubled its operating result in 2020 despite the coronavirus crisis – as the Managing Board forecast at the start of the crisis. We put three questions about this to Chief Executive Officer Jürgen Reinert.

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.

In 2019, there were 358 wars and conflicts worldwide. Often involved are countries from which we obtain oil, gas and coal. In addition to the fight against climate change, this is another important reason to make the world less dependent on fossil fuels as quickly as possible.

SMA is looking for PV pioneers who laid the foundation for a sustainable, decentralized energy supply with their PV systems many years ago. With their enthusiasm for photovoltaics, they paved the way for today’s energy transition. All PV system operators who installed an SMA solar inverter or battery inverter in the early years of photovoltaics and are still producing solar power today can participate in the photo campaign. SMA will be giving away 15 solar outdoor packages. The closing date for all entries is December 31, 2020.