Enphase Energy just released its next generation microinverter. Let’s face it: Enphase is synonymous with microinverters. By continuing to release new solar inverters, Enphase is staying ahead of the competition—which is not insignificant. We have heard of at least twenty, that’s right, twenty other firms that are trying to home in on the microinverter market. They are of course correct, because the first-to-market advantage does not always last. At least today, Enphase seems to be doing everything right, generating over $60 million in sales last year and on target to ship their one millionth product in the coming months. Yesterday the announcement came that Enphase is seeking to raise a cool $100 million in an initial public offering. Money is flowing easily into the microinverter market as Enecsys, probably Enphase’s closest competitor, also raised $41 million in a series B round of financing. Enecsys likes to call its products micro inverters and sometimes micro-inverters. What’s there not to love about a product that converts the electrifying DC to AC right at the panel level (actually plenty according to the big central solar inverter companies, but that is another story). Enphase just released its new generation Enphase M215 microinverter, which we are already carrying at SolarTown. This latest microinverter product from Enphase will change how solar panels will be installed in your home solar system or commercial solar energy system.
Posts Tagged ‘Enphase warranty’
Enphase Releases New Generation Microinverter–and Then Goes Public
Thursday, June 16th, 2011Enphase Microinverter Warranty Claim Causes Heartburn
Monday, March 21st, 2011We should say right up front that we generally have a bias in favor of microinverters. Most of the solar energy systems that we sell at SolarTown are sold with microinverters rather than central inverters. We have explained in our learning article explaining inverters and micro inverters why generally we favor microinverters in the residential solar market. Our recommendation, however, may be tempered by our recent experience dealing with customer care of the leading microinverter manufacturer, Enphase. Microinverters have quickly garnered acceptance especially for solar installations on homes. Although we expect some major competition starting this year, Enphase is undoubtedly the leader of this fast expanding market, and as of this writing, is the only microinverter we carry at SolarTown. We may have not been as sensitive to the reliability issue of microinverters, or particularly the Enphase microinverter, until one of the Enphase parts failed on one of our customer’s installations. The part that failed was the Enphase Envoy, which is, according to Enphase, the “communications gateway” for the solar energy system. It basically monitors the performance of the system.