The controller integrates select third-party products into the SolarEdge EMS ecosystem by connecting to a household’s Internet router via the local area network (LAN). It can communicate with inverters, electric vehicle chargers, heat pumps and SolarEdge’s servers.
Israel-based SolarEdge is introducing a new controller product in Europe, the company’s smart energy manager for residential solar, as the company focuses on opportunities in the energy management systems (EMS) segment.
Christian Carraro, CEO of SolarEdge in Europe, said pv magazine that the energy management system can integrate and manage energy components in a household or business. “We are launching the One Controller for our residential solar suite and are literally shipping the first shipments as we speak, between December and January,” he said.
The controller integrates select third-party products into the SolarEdge EMS ecosystem by connecting to the household Internet router via the local area network (LAN). The One Controller can then communicate with inverters, electric vehicle chargers, heat pumps and SolarEdge’s servers.
Carraro added that SolarEdge is developing a similar offering for the commercial and industrial (C&I) segment. “We will take a similar approach to C&I,” he said. “We will have one controller for homes and one controller for C&I.”
Both controllers will be integrated with an EMS managed through SolarEdge’s One Platform, with different features available depending on the segment. The platform will be rolled out to the residential segment first, Carraro said, and the C&I product will follow.
“At the end of the day, as the concept is launched across Europe, we will likely see different applications,” Carraro said. “There will be some countries that will use it for the dynamic rate and time of use [tariff] features, and there will be other markets where they use it to integrate with other technologies – with heat pumps and EV chargers.”
SolarEdge posted a net loss of $1.2 billion in the third quarter of 2024, largely due to a write-down of $1.03 billion in assets on the company’s balance sheet. It has also announced more than 1,000 job cuts in the past 12 months.
Carraro, who was named GM for Europe in the summer of 2024, said that in addition to generating revenue, he sees his main goal in the company as building best practices that can “help every country shine.”
“SolarEdge is one of the major players in the European market and as such we have the same challenges as the others,” he said. “The European market is stagnant, that does not mean that the market is small, but it does mean that it has clearly not grown compared to the second half of 2023 and 2024.”
The Managing Director for Europe said he does not expect a return to runaway growth in the inverter market in 2021 and 2022, but the additional conditions are good for a return to “normality” in the second quarter of 2025 as the number of inverters in stock continues to decline.
“When we see the install levels in our monitoring, as well as the reports we get from other channels, they are greater than the volume we are sending. There is continued activity in clearing stocks. Because of the seasonality, I think we should be in a much more positive position from the second quarter.”
The GM for Europe also confirmed that despite the closure of its South Korean battery cell division that supported non-solar BESS applications, solar-connected storage remains an issue. “important part” of the SolarEdge activities.
While SolarEdge may sell its 2 GWh battery cell manufacturing facility in South Korea, Carraro said the company remains firmly committed to its U.S. manufacturing operations. “For us it is important to ensure that we produce high-quality and safe products. We want to maintain production in Western countries. Today we have two factories in the US that will replace a number of factories elsewhere.” Carraro said.
This content is copyrighted and may not be reused. If you would like to collaborate with us and reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
