SMA Expands Global Manufacturing Capacity with Opening of New Gigawatt Factory

New facility strengthens SMA’s ability to support growing U.S. and global demand for resilient, secure and scalable energy infrastructure

ROCKLIN, Calif., Sept. 17, 2026 — SMA Solar Technology AG has opened its new Gigawatt Factory in Niestetal, Germany, expanding the company’s global manufacturing capabilities for large-scale energy technology, at a time of rapidly increasing electricity demand and growing pressure on energy infrastructure in the United States and around the world.

This is one part of a broader strategy designed to empower the organization to meet evolving customer needs and remain competitive in one of the company's most strategic markets.

The Gigawatt Factory has a site area of approximately 495,000 square feet and approximately 221,000 square feet of floor space. The facility represents an investment of approximately $92.3 million USD or 80 million euros.

For the U.S. market, the investment comes at a pivotal moment. Electricity demand is accelerating as utilities and developers work to add renewable generation, battery energy storage and new large-scale loads to the grid. Data centers, driven in part by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence and cloud computing, are emerging as a significant source of that growth and creating an urgent need for reliable, scalable power infrastructure.

Meeting that demand will require more than simply adding generation. It will require the manufacturing capacity, power electronics expertise and grid technology needed to integrate new sources of generation, storage and load while maintaining grid reliability and security.

“Energy infrastructure is becoming more critical, more interconnected and more sophisticated, and that changes what customers need from their technology partners,” said Jay Arghestani, managing director of sales, technology and marketing for Large Scale at SMA America. “For our customers in the United States, investments like the Gigawatt Factory strengthen the global foundation behind the solutions we deliver here. We are preparing for a market where the need for power is growing quickly, particularly as data centers and other large loads come online and customers need infrastructure that can scale without compromising reliability or security.”

The opening reflects a broader shift taking place across the energy industry. As energy generation storage and large new electrical loads are added to the grid, the conversation is expanding beyond how quickly new capacity can be deployed to how reliably and securely that infrastructure can operate.

Grid stability, cybersecurity, supply chain resilience and the secure operation of critical energy infrastructure are increasingly important considerations for utilities, developers, data center operators and other large energy users.

“Scale alone isn’t enough,” Arghestani said. “The next generation of energy infrastructure must be reliable, secure and capable of supporting an increasingly dynamic grid. That is particularly important in the U.S., where we are seeing extraordinary growth in both generation and electricity demand. The manufacturing and engineering capabilities SMA is investing in globally help us bring that experience and technology directly to our customers here.”

The Gigawatt Factory officially opens Sept. 17 and will manufacture utility-scale technologies, supporting PV, storage, hybrid, hydrogen and data center applications. The opening brings together leaders from industry, government and security policy for a broader discussion about energy security, industrial resilience and the role of advanced manufacturing in protecting critical infrastructure.

For SMA America, the investment is one part of a broader strategy to expand the capabilities available to U.S. customers. SMA is pairing its global manufacturing and engineering investments with a growing network of domestic partnerships, including its work with CEP and other U.S. partners, to increase local integration, strengthen supply chain resilience and deliver solutions tailored to the needs of the U.S. market.

Together, these investments reflect SMA’s approach to the next phase of U.S. energy growth: combining more than four decades of global power electronics and energy system expertise with expanded domestic capabilities to support the rapidly evolving needs of utilities, developers, data centers and other large energy users.


About SMA
As a leading global specialist in photovoltaic and storage system technology, the SMA Group is setting the standards of today for the decentralized and renewable energy supply of tomorrow. SMA’s portfolio contains a wide range of efficient PV and battery inverters, holistic system solutions for PV and battery storage systems of all power classes, intelligent energy management systems and charging solutions for electric vehicles and power-to-gas applications. Digital energy services as well as extensive services round off SMA’s range. The SMA PV inverters sold around the world since 2006, with a total output of approximately 156 GW, have helped to avoid greenhouse gas emissions of more than 69 million metric tons of CO2e. This corresponds to avoided environmental costs of approximately €21 billion. SMA’s multi-award-winning technology is protected by more than 1,600 patents and utility models. Since 2008, the Group’s parent company, SMA Solar Technology AG, has been listed on the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (S92) and is listed on the SDAX and TecDAX indices.