German inverter manufacturer Solutronic has filed for insolvency in a German district court.
News of the company's difficulties follows recent predictions of a worse-than-expected decline in revenue for inverter manufacturers and evidence of a slowdown in the inverter market in Germany.
Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis
Photovoltaics International is now included.
- Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
- In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
- Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
- Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
- Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
- Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual
Or continue reading this article for free
The court in Esslingen will now work to determine what will be done with the company’s assets, with Marcus Winkler appointed as provisional insolvency manager.
Solutronic was formed in 2004 and manufactures a range of inverters and energy management systems. In 2010 it posted what it said were record earnings, driven by a boom in its core German market.
But according to a report earlier this week by analysts IHS, the global market revenue for inverters is expected to decline by 9% to US$6.4 billion, down from US$7.1 billion in 2012, a partial result of what is now a declining market in Germany.
Total inverter shipments to Germany and Italy will drop by more than half to 5.7GW this year, down from 11.5 GW in 2012, IHS said, as subsidies in these countries are phased out.
These same markets saw inverter prices plummet by 60% in the second quarter of 2013, according to earlier IHS data.
