German solar inverter manufacturer SMA Solar will cut 350 jobs in 2026 as it adapts to the “weak” residential PV market.
SMA will scrap 300 jobs in Germany and 50 internationally over the course of next year as part of its ongoing “restructuring and transformation” programme. This is due to the “continuing weak market and immense price pressure in the home and commercial sectors,” said SMA CEO Jürgen Reinert.
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The “restructuring” will result in over €100 million in savings, the company said. It forecast those savings in its September announcement of planned restructuring and adjustment of its 2025 financial expectations. It did not mention job cuts at the time.
“We are currently experiencing a strong decline in new installations in the residential sector compared to 2024—particularly in our core market, Germany,” said SMA Solar CFO Kaveh Rouhi. “The goal of the expanded restructuring and transformation is to put Home & Business Solutions back on a clear path to success and to ensure the company’s overall performance through balanced development of both divisions.”
The company plans to stabilise its residential business by focusing on its “core competencies”, like cybersecurity, quality and meeting “the highest international and national standards,” Reinert said.
SMA outlined further “levers for achieving savings potential” in the residential sector. It said it would focus on research and development activity at its “Competence Centre” in India; adjust its production strategy through “reduced vertical integration in terms of hardware and an expansion of in-house production capacities in Poland”; and offer a “more efficient service strategy”.
SMA Solar has been posting financial losses over the last year and warning of declining sales in the residential and corporate & industrial (C&I) sectors since Q1 2024. SMA previously announced plans to cut around 1,100 jobs over the course of 2025, around the same time that its competitors Enphase Energy and Solaredge also announced job cuts.
As well as residential challenges, non-Chinese inverter manufacturers have fallen victim to increasing competition from large Chinese firms, which have been able to win on price as inverter technology has become broadly commoditised. PV Tech Premium looked at these dynamics in depth earlier this year.
Residential market decline
Europe’s residential PV sector has been slowing down over the last year, since the boom triggered by the 2022-2024 energy crises has subsided and numerous policies incentivising residential solar have been rolled back across the continent. Similar dynamics have also affected the US market.
The European PV sector is set to see a 5% contraction in its workforce this year due to the declining residential market, according to a report from SolarPower Europe last week. The most “job-intensive” part of the industry will drive the first decline in solar jobs for over a decade, the report said.
