SMA Solar Technology AG announced the opening of its new Gigawatt Factory in Germany at Niestetal, 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 part of a broader strategy to help the organization respond to changing 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 floor space of approximately 221,000 square feet. The facility represents an investment of some US$92.3 million, or 80 million euros.
The investment is a pivotal moment for the U.S. market. The pace of electricity demand is accelerating as utilities and developers look to add renewable generation, battery energy storage, and new large-scale loads to the grid. Fuelled in part by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and cloud computing, data centers are becoming a major driver of that growth and creating an urgent demand for reliable, scalable power infrastructure.
Meeting that demand will involve more than just adding generation. It will need manufacturing capacity, power electronics know-how, and grid technology to integrate new sources of generation, storage, and load while maintaining grid reliability and security.
According to the managing director of sales, technology, and marketing for Large Scale at SMA America, Jay Arghestani, “Energy infrastructure is becoming more critical, more interconnected, and more sophisticated, and that changes what customers need from their technology partners. 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 require infrastructure that can scale without compromising reliability or security.”
The opening of the new gigawatt factory in Germany is part of a larger transition taking place in the energy industry. As the grid adds energy generation storage and large new electrical loads, the conversation is shifting from how quickly new capacity can be set up to how dependable and safe that infrastructure can operate.
Utilities, developers, data center operators, and various other large energy users are increasingly concerned about grid stability, ensuring cybersecurity, supply chain robustness, and the safe operation of critical energy infrastructure.
Arghestani adds, “Scale alone isn’t enough. 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 that SMA is investing in globally help us bring that experience and technology directly to our customers here.”
The Gigawatt Factory will manufacture utility-scale technologies, supporting PV, storage, hybrid, and hydrogen as well as data center applications, and was officially opened September 17, 2026. The opening will bring together leaders from industry and government as well as security policy for a wider discussion regarding energy security, industrial resilience, and the significance of advanced manufacturing in safeguarding critical infrastructure.
The investment is part of a broader effort by SMA America to improve the capabilities available to U.S. customers. Leveraging its global manufacturing and engineering investments, coupled with a growing network of domestic partnerships, including its work with CEP and other U.S. partners, SMA is increasing local integration, strengthening supply chain resilience and delivering solutions tailored to the needs of the U.S. market.
Together, these investments represent SMA’s strategy for the next phase of U.S. energy growth, combining more than 40 years of global power electronics and energy systems expertise with expanded domestic capabilities to meet the rapidly changing needs of utilities, developers, data centers, and other large energy consumers.