Currency image: QuinceMedia
After a rather rocky period, the sun appears to be shining again for U.S-based microinverter giant Enphase Energy. The company’s return to profitability in Q4 has been described as a significant milestone.
Enphase Energy’s financial results for the fourth quarter of 2017 were announced a couple of days ago. During the quarter, Enphase generated USD $79.7 million in revenue, an increase of 3% on Q3.
The company exited Q4 with a non-GAAP net income of USD $683,000 compared to a loss of around $964,000 for Q3, 2017.
During the final quarter, the company shipped 755,000 Enphase microinverters. A microinverter is small device mounted on the rear of or close to a solar panel (1 per panel) that does away with the need for a central solar inverter; providing redundancy, panel level monitoring and various other benefits.
Enphase says it has shipped more than 16 million microinverters to date, and approximately 739,000 Enphase-based systems have been installed in more than 100 countries – including Australia.
Enphase Energy President and CEO Badri Kothandaraman was very upbeat about the Q4 results and said the company was on track to achieving its 30-20-10 target operating model by the end of this year.
“We are targeting 30% gross margin, 20% operating expenses and 10% operating income, all by the fourth quarter of 2018.”
According to SeekingAlpha, Q4 showed the first quarterly profit on an adjusted basis since 2015.
The news was very well received by the market, with ENPH shares reaching their highest closing price since late 2015 yesterday ($3.32).
In other recent financial news from Enphase, the company sold 9,523,809 shares of its common stock in a private placement at $2.10 per share earlier this month; raising gross proceeds of $20 million.
Enphase Seeking Trump Solar Tax Exemption
PV Magazine reports Enphase Energy is seeking an exemption from U.S. President Donald Trump’s solar tax/solar tariffs; punitive duties applied to solar panels imported into the USA.
Some Enphase microinverters are shipped to overseas manufacturers to be fitted on solar panels, which are then imported into the USA where they are subject to the Section 201 duty – including the value of the microinverter. However, the company appears confident of an exemption due to the tariff’s intent of targeting imported cells and modules only, not inverters. If that fails, an alternative could be to have the microinverters removed before shipping and then re-fitted at a U.S. factory.
On a related note, we reported a couple of weeks ago news of a partnership between Enphase Energy and Panasonic that will see Enphase’s IQ 7X Micro microinverter integrated with Panasonic HIT modules. Other solar panel manufacturers to partner with Enphase on the production of AC solar panels include JinkoSolar (Eagle AC) and LG (NeON 2 ACe).
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With microinverters being on panels on rooves, DC optimisers (like the SolarEdge ones that come separately to panels, and the SolarEdge ones that come with panels attached, like the Canadian (that are not made in Canada) panels, on rooves, and, the devices that separate substrings (that sounds like 3GL computer programming) within panels, like the Maxim Integrated optimisers, that are part(s) of some Jinko (and maybe other) panels, which of these now emit electromagnetic radiation, that interferes, or, that may interfere, with communications such as television reception?
From memory, Jinko panels that came with the Maxim Integrated optimisers, had a reputation for interference with television signals and reception.
Does the problem still apply, and, if so, to which of the three types of devices nentioned above, connected to panels on rooves, does the problem apply?