LEA Renergy buys inverter maker Santerno for $6.8M, restarts production
What's the deal? Italian renewable energy developer LEA Renergy has acquired inverter manufacturer Enertronica SanternoDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → at auction for roughly €6 million ($6.8 million). The company is now ready to restart production at its factory in Castel Guelfo, near Bologna.
Why now? Santerno, which built a business spanning industrial automation and photovoltaic inverters over more than half a century, was pushed into judicial liquidation in October 2025 after financial difficulties. Its acquisition in 2026 reopens a brand that had installed 6.8 GW of capacity worldwide, with branches in Brazil, Chile, Spain, and South Africa.
What's the endgame? Chief executive officer Luigi Marziale wants to restore the Santerno brand to "where it belongs" and is targeting €40 million in revenue by 2030. The acquisition was financed through a bond issue, and Marziale ruled out further bank financing for now while remaining open to incentive programs.
Santerno's portfolio includes central inverters rated up to 1.8 MW and power conversion systems (PCS) for energy storage in 2 MW, 2.2 MW, and 2.4 MW sizes. Rather than competing with battery suppliers such as LG, Tesla, and HuaweiDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, it aims to target system integration. "The customer selects the battery, and we interface it with our equipment to manage the entire system," Marziale said.
Production is already underway across three facilities in Dozza and Castel Guelfo, with annual capacity of about 1 GW. The main bottleneck is testing, as each unit must run at full power for eight to 24 hours across roughly eight test stations. "With two shifts, we can produce nearly 1 GW per year," Marziale said.
The Made-in-Italy angle: Santerno must import some components — insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) and capacitors are no longer made in Europe — but sources most of them from Japan and buys very little from China. Some parts come from Italian manufacturers, including Ducati EnergiaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a structure Marziale said could qualify the group for Made-in-EU criteria.
The signal: The deal shows how distressed European hardware brands can find second lives through domestic buyers betting on Made-in-Italy and Made-in-EU positioning as a competitive edge against Asian rivals.
Image credit: USDAgov
