SolarEdge Technologies was founded in 2006 by Guy Sella, Lior Handelsman, Yoav Galin, Meir Adest, and Amir Fishelov, a team of engineers with backgrounds in power electronics and semiconductors. The founders identified a fundamental inefficiency in traditional solar inverter systems: when panels are connected in series (a string), the performance of the entire string is limited by the weakest panel, whether due to shading, soiling, or manufacturing variation.
SolarEdge's solution was the DC power optimizer, a module-level device that maximizes the power output of each individual panel before sending DC power to a central inverter. This approach, known as the DC-optimized inverter system, significantly improved energy harvest compared to traditional string inverters, particularly in installations with partial shading or complex roof geometries.
The company began commercial sales in 2010 and grew rapidly, establishing itself as a major player in the residential and commercial solar markets in the United States, Europe, and Israel. SolarEdge went public on NASDAQ in March 2015, raising approximately $126 million in its IPO.
Guy Sella, the company's co-founder and CEO, died unexpectedly in August 2019. Zvi Lando succeeded him as CEO.
SolarEdge expanded its product portfolio in the late 2010s and early 2020s to include energy storage systems (the StorEdge solution), electric vehicle chargers, and battery management systems. The company also acquired several companies to expand its capabilities, including Kokam (South Korean battery manufacturer) in 2019 and SMRE (Italian e-mobility company) in 2018.
SolarEdge experienced extraordinary growth during 2021 and 2022, driven by strong demand for residential solar in Europe (particularly Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy) and the United States. Revenue grew from approximately $1.46 billion in fiscal year 2020 to approximately $3.1 billion in fiscal year 2023.
In 2024, SolarEdge faced a severe market downturn driven by a collapse in European residential solar demand, high interest rates reducing solar installation activity, and significant inventory corrections by distributors. The company reported a revenue decline to approximately $1.6 billion in fiscal year 2024 and undertook multiple rounds of workforce reductions, cutting approximately 2,900 employees (approximately 40% of its workforce) across 2023 and 2024. The company also announced it would exit its energy storage and EV charging businesses to refocus on its core solar inverter and optimizer products.