U.S.-based microinverter maker Enphase saw its revenue and shipments decline slightly in the first quarter of this year. Lower than expected turnover for the period was $55 million, while shipments totaled 138 MW. In the same quarter of 2016, the company registered sales in the amount $64 million, with microinverter shipments reaching 143 MW.
“Our revenue for the first quarter was lower than expected due to the extraordinarily wet winter in California, where we have a significant presence,” said Enphase CEO Paul Nahi.
Meanwhile, the company’s operating loss increased from $19 million in the first quarter of last year to $22.0 million in the latest quarter. Net loss also grew year-on-year from $19 million to $23 million.
The company also said it exited the quarter with a total cash balance of $30.0 million, thus improving its cash position. At the end of the first quarter of 2016, Enphase had a total cash balance of just $13 million, while at the end of Q4 2016 the company had $18 million in cash.
The company claims that improvement of its cash position was due to the restructuring plan it implemented over the last three quarters. “We expect the full effect of our restructuring initiatives will bring our non-GAAP operating expense run-rate to approximately $18 million, starting in the second quarter, as we continue to focus on achieving sustainable profitability in the second half of 2017,” added Nahi.
Looking forward, the company expects revenue to reach between $72 million to $80 million in the second quarter of this year, with non-GAAP gross margin expected to be within a range of 17 to 20%.
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I sense doom and gloom for Enphase as a going concern. I have personally experienced many, many failures of their microinverters over the years and have avoided using them as much as possible. Even when I HAD to use them in small 5-panel school systems, I’ve had to return and replace at least one out of the five of them. One school has seven of these, and I’ve been called to service them (replace at least two micro inverters at a time) three times over four years. It’s gotten to the point that I just cost-anticipate in a service visit on these school projects. Enphase has an enormous defect rate that has tarnished their name and will be a financial drag on them for as long as they are in business.
Dave,
I’m curious what generation inverter you were using? We have installed over 50,000 Enphase inverters and only have replaced a handful? I have personally visited and met the Enphase executive team multiple times including a tour of their facilities. I’m sure that they would love to hear this feed back.
The 8.1kw Solar World system installed at my vacation home in 2014 used Enphase microconverters. None have failed and I continue to generate much more energy than I am able to use.
Most of these failures were the “first generation” units made about 4 – 5 years ago when they first came out. (end-to-end connections, not the harness type). I have just moved on to the better (in my opinion) Solar Edge system where I have only had one optimizer failure in hundreds… And better efficiency.
I still have to use Enphase on these small 5 – 6 solar module school installations however, so I have not completely abandoned them.
AND yes, I have let Enphase tech support know of my many failures during phone calls over the last two years as I am called out to replace them. On the school that I referenced above, after the third visit and having (5) of the (7) units now failed, they wouldn’t accept an obvious field failure of this batch of inverters, and would not replace the remaining (2) units “until they failed” too. (Homer Glen Jr. High, Chicago area). I just now looked at their website and see that another (3) units have failed since last year…need I say more?