Share prices for inverter manufacturer SolarEdge have risen since the start of the week following news the company is cutting 400 jobs, its fourth layoff in the past year.
In an SEC notification on 6 January, SolarEdge laid out plans to cut 400 jobs, with the intention of “enhancing operational cost efficiency”.
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The company said the jobs losses would be spread globally and, once completed, lead to a quarterly reduction in expenses of US$9 to US$11 million.
SolarEdge has experienced a difficult 12 months amid changing market conditions, prompting announcements of job cuts in January, July and November of last year. The latter announcement came when the company revealed its intention to close its utility-scale battery storage division and focus on its “core” PV business, resulting in the loss of around 12% of its total workforce. The company appointed a new CEO, Shuki Nir, in early December.
In a letter to employees, Nir said further details on how the company would implement the latest round of layoffs would be provided in the coming weeks.
Safe harbour agreements
Alongside news of the layoffs, SolarEdge also revealed this week that it had signed safe harbour agreements with US residential PV installer Sunrun and what SolarEdge described as one of the largest financiers of residential solar in the US, without providing a name.
Under the agreements, SolarEdge will provide inverters, power optimisers and batteries manufactured at its US facilities. “These agreements are expected to enable our installation and financing partners to qualify for domestic content bonus tax credits, and we believe they also provide us with greater visibility and certainty regarding the 2025 outlook,” Nir said.
SolarEdge said in late December it had also closed its second transaction for the sale of 45X tax credits. The transaction includes a portion of the credits that were generated in the third quarter of 2024 that were backed by both US manufactured inverters and US manufactured power optimisers, making them eligible for the 11 cents per watt advanced manufacturing production credit.
“We believe these are significant milestones in our path to regain financial stability, better enabling us to achieve our organisational objectives this year and driving our return to profitable growth,” Nir said.
As reported by PV Tech last November, Western inverter manufacturers globally have faced significant headwinds driven by big-picture factors such as the easing of the energy crisis in Europe sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As a result, they are under pressure to become more sophisticated in their products and business models, for example to capitalise on the growth in demand for residential energy storage systems.
