From the Liveblog of
Sunday, January 21, 2024
Israeli smart energy firm SolarEdge says it will slash 16% of its global workforce
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel.
Israeli-founded smart energy tech firm SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. announces plans to slash 16% of its global workforce, to cut operating costs, in light of the weak demand for its solar invertors.
Based in Herzliya and with US headquarters in California, SolarEdge says the reduction translates into layoffs of 900 employees, of which about 500 are from the firm’s various manufacturing sites. The move is part of a restructuring plan following the discontinuation of manufacturing in Mexico, the reduction of manufacturing in China, and the termination of the firm’s light commercial vehicle e-mobility operations.
“We have made a very difficult, but necessary decision to implement a workforce reduction and other cost-cutting measures in order to align our cost structure with the rapidly changing market dynamics,” states SolarEdge CEO Zvi Lando. “We remain confident in the long-term growth of the solar energy market… These changes do not impact our strategic direction and priorities and we remain committed to continue to drive the renewable energy transformation.”
SolarEdge was founded in 2006, seeking to make solar energy more affordable and widespread. It developed an inverter solution for harvesting and managing power in solar photovoltaic (PV) systems.
However, over the past year, SolarEdge shares plunged almost 80 percent, as the solar company warned in October about “substantial unexpected cancellations” from European distributors.
