Enphase announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2020 yesterday, showing impressive revenue growth year-over-year.
“We are pleased to report $205 .5 million in the first quarter of 2020, along with an all-time record for gross margin, despite COVID-19,” said President and CEO, Badri Kothandaraman. “Our first quarter revenue increased 105% year-over-year.”
Mr. Kothandaraman noted approximately 643 megawatts DC, or 2,012,476 Enphase microinverters, were shipped during Q1, 2020. No comparison was made in the report with Q1, 2019, but digging back reveals 306 megawatts DC, or 976,410 microinverters, were shipped in Q1 last year.
Australia received a mention among the business highlights for the quarter – the expanded partnership with Rexel Group that will see Rexel Australia supply solar installers across the country with the full suite of Enphase IQ products.
COVID-19 Delays Encharge Rollout
COVID-19 hasn’t been without its impacts. Mr. Kothandaraman noted shipping of its new Encharge battery storage system during the first quarter of 2020 could not proceed as planned due to engineering and certification activity slowdown as a result of pandemic related restrictions.
“We now expect shipments to begin in June 2020 ,” he said. “To support the launch, we are ramping online installer training and tools while shelter-in-place and social distancing measures remain in force.”
Enphase Encharge 10 is all-in-one AC-coupled storage system featuring three base Encharge 3 storage units with a total usable capacity of 10.08kWh, and twelve embedded grid-forming microinverters.
It’s understood the first market where Encharge will be released is the USA, followed by Australia.
Looking Ahead
“Although there is short-term uncertainty due to COVID-19, we have tremendous confidence in the strength of our business in the long term,” said Mr. Kothandaraman.
For the second quarter of 2020, Enphase Energy estimates revenue to be within a range of $115 million to $130 million.
No mention was made in the report regarding general availability of the Enphase IQ8 microinverter. However, PV Magazine USA reports that in Enphase’s subsequent earnings call the company said it is still on track to release the IQ8 in the second half of this year.
The IQ8 is eagerly anticipated in part due to stand-alone functionality; enabling solar homes with the IQ8 to still have some daytime power supply during a blackout. A currently available solar inverter with stand-alone functionality we recently mentioned is Delta’s E5.
The market was again impressed with Enphase’s latest financial report, with its shares closing today up 18.73% at $52.68. The full financial results report for the first quarter of 2020 can be viewed here.
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3 years ago, we chose Enphase batteries because they were modular and micro-inverters so we could use AC wiring. Now we’d like to add a couple more panels. They don’t make the micro-inverters any more so it looks like we have to go DC and change the whole system to string inverters. Not happy … unless someone can tell I’m wrong.
Hi Graeme.
We can add panels and the new microinverter very easily into your current system, you might need to upgrade the Enphase Envoy to an Envoy S metered to ensure it is compatible with new microinverters. If your original installer cannot help please contact out customer support team https://enphase.com/en-au/support/system-owners the chat feature will get you the fastest answer.
Kind regards,
Jeremy – Enphase
Hi Graeme
Because microinverters allow each panel to operate independently of each other as a mini one panel solar system, you can add additional panels using microinverters as desired. However, it’s probably not worth getting just a couple of extra panels. If you get someone to come out and go up on your roof I’d say you may as well get them to install more while they’re up there. You also can add a standard solar system with a string inverter, so long as there is room on your roof. You can leave your current panels where they are or you may prefer to replace them with one large new system.
Your Enphase batteries are AC coupled and so won’t be affected by any changes made to the rooftop solar.
Do we have any idea what Encharge will cost in Australia? I had the impression there is a smaller (3) and larger (10) battery option. Also, is it possible to have Ensemble (i.e. power working during a blackout) without battery backup?