SMA Inverter News and 2023 Shipments: A Total-Cost Decision

If you're buying solar inverters for a living, unit price is the worst first filter you can use. SMA inverter shipments in 2023 came to about 12.2 gigawatts, according to SMA Solar Technology AG's annual report, but that number tells you less about your project cost than the line items below it. A 5% cheaper inverter can easily become 15% more expensive after shipping, commissioning, callbacks, and downtime.

I've spent the past six years managing procurement for a 32-person commercial solar and energy-storage company, negotiated with over 30 suppliers, and logged every order in our cost tracking system. My job is to make sure every dollar of our roughly $480,000 annual equipment budget does something. Honestly, I don't pick SMA inverters out of brand loyalty. I pick them when the total cost math works. And over the years, I've learned that total cost includes the time your crew spends troubleshooting, not just the invoice.

Who this perspective comes from

First, a boundary: I'm not an electrical engineer, and I won't pretend to have every inverter fault memorized. This gets into IGBT failure analysis and power electronics territory that isn't my expertise. What I can do is look at the costs around those faults—warranty handling, service visits, replacement freight, and labor hours lost while a system sits idle.

That's why a lot of this is procurement thinking, not engineering theory. It's also why I built a multi-vendor comparison spreadsheet and now require at least three quotes for every inverter order over $5,000.

SMA inverter news and 2023 shipments: what really matters

The big SMA inverter news from the 2023 reporting period was a strong recovery in volume. According to SMA Solar Technology AG's 2023 Annual Report, inverter output sold rose to around 12.2 GW from roughly 9 GW a year earlier. The exact figure may be adjusted in later investor releases, so verify it if you're using it in a business case. But the scale tells me something useful: SMA has a large installed base, a mature supply chain, and a service network that B2B buyers rely on.

However, a GW shipment number is not a substitute for due diligence. Some procurement teams treat market leadership as if it removes the need to calculate TCO. It doesn't. Market share says people bought the product. It does not tell you how a specific distributor handles warranty claims or whether the monitoring subscription has a hidden fee.

The counterintuitive cost lesson: 'cheaper' was more expensive

One of the most counterintuitive things I've learned is simple: the lowest quote is often the most expensive project. In Q3 2023, I compared three proposals for a 150kW commercial rooftop. The lower-priced option came in about 8% below the SMA inverter quote. On paper, that was almost $4,000 in savings. Then the line items appeared:

• Freight to a rural site that the lower-priced vendor did not include
• An extra charge for a basic electrical schematic
• Commissioning support that required a paid third-party visit
• No phone support after 5 PM

After adding all of that, the 'cheap' option cost about $2,100 more than the SMA quote—before we measured a single kilowatt-hour. That is the difference between price and total cost of ownership.

To be fair, the lower-priced inverter might have made sense for a local project with an in-house commissioning team. I'm not saying the lowest-priced product is always wrong. I'm saying you don't know which is right until you build a TCO model.

Why multimeter testing is a procurement issue, not a tech issue

Most equipment failures don't show up as a smoking gun. They show up as an inverter that won't start, or a generator that won't run. If your team calls a service technician immediately, you're paying for a truck roll and an hour of labor—often for something a $12 multimeter could have isolated.

How to test for power with a multimeter

Before you file a warranty claim or replace a unit, test the system side. Here's the basic approach I've seen work on jobsites:

1. Verify AC and DC input power. Set the meter to AC voltage for grid connections and DC voltage for battery strings. Check that the voltage at the inverter terminals is present and within spec. No power? The inverter is probably not the problem.
2. Check fuses and disconnect switches. With the system safely de-energized, use resistance mode to confirm a fuse is continuous. A blown fuse on the DC side can look exactly like a dead inverter.
3. Test relays before replacing them. If you're dealing with a relay-controlled circuit, learn basic relay logic. For the classic fuel pump relay wiring pattern, check coil resistance between terminals 85 and 86, and contact continuity between 30, 87, and 87a. The same principle applies to contactors and distribution relays in a solar plant.

And if you're using a backup generator for off-grid or hybrid systems, don't overlook the simple stuff. A Predator 3500 inverter generator spark plug is a cheap part that causes expensive no-start calls. You can remove it, check for carbon buildup, verify the gap with a feeler gauge, and test for spark. That is not exotic electrical knowledge; it's total cost thinking.

I know 'fuel pump relay wiring' and 'solar inverter' don't usually appear in the same sentence. But from a budget perspective, they're related: technicians who know how to test power and relay logic catch small problems before they become service invoices. That lowers downtime and keeps warranty claims honest.

A mistake that cost us $6,000

In 2022, I assumed a string of inverter failures was the product's fault. We had five units reporting no output, and we rushed to replace them under warranty. The new arrivals worked fine, so we thought the issue was on the inverter side. Then SMA's technical support asked for data logs. The inverter logs showed no grid voltage at the input. The real fault was a surge-damaged relay in the distribution panel, not the inverter itself.

We spent close to $6,000 on freight, labor, and replacement handling before discovering the actual problem. I've learned to never assume the expensive component is the broken one. Now our workflow includes a simple voltage check before any equipment replacement.

Test the system first, then talk about replacements.

Granted, this is an uncomfortable admission from someone who manages budgets. But it's exactly why I push the total-cost message.

Boundary conditions: when to stop testing and call a pro

This is not a replacement for a licensed electrician. High-voltage DC from solar panels can kill you, and opening an SMA inverter voids the warranty. My point is not to make you a solar engineer. My point is that safe, non-invasive tests—input voltage, continuity, fuses, external relays, generator spark plug—are within the reach of a well-trained installer. If those tests don't identify the issue, stop and escalate.

I'm not 100% sure where SMA's service model will go next. The inverter market changes quickly, and product lines evolve. This was accurate as of early 2025; verify current warranties, monitoring fees, and shipment figures before putting them in your own cost model.

Bottom line? Unit price is basically an input, not a decision. The SMA inverter and its alternatives all have tradeoffs. Do the TCO math, test the easy things, and keep the expensive decisions honest.