Enphase is making money, has good looking gear and might just have an ace up its sleeve. The company hosted institutional investors and financial analysts at its annual analyst day presentation.
The company noted whole year revenue was projected at $619 million in 2019 with operating income at $122 million, up 96% and 495% year-on-year, respectively. Enphase is hoping to expand to 8 more European countries in 2020, doubling revenue from the continent in the year.
Enphase sees the global residential “serviceable available market” (SAM) expanding from $2.5 billion this year to $4 billion in 2022. When adding in residential storage, small commercial solar, and off-grid solar and storage the company projects its SAM to grow from $3.3 billion to $12.5 billion by 2022. Wood Mackenzie Renewables & Power sees Enphase products installed on 19% of U.S. residential rooftops year-to-date.
Enphase will ramp its Mexico facilities from 500,000 to 1 million units per quarter, reaching a quarterly capacity of 3.5 million microinverters and 120 MWh of energy storage by Q4 2020. The company estimates spending $25 million in capital expenditures to achieve this.
The main components of an Enphase installation are the microinverters on the backside of the modules and the IQ combiner which brings the module wires together. The full on Ensemble 2.0 suite includes IQ8 inverters and the IQ, plus an Enpower Switch which sits between the home and the power grid, as well the energy storage solution which is wired directly to the switch (beyond the main electric panel). All items are wirelessly connected.
Enphase spoke of a three-phase solar power inverter focused on the commercial market. The unit is rated at 640Wac and can handle two 400W solar modules. Enphase analyst TJ Roberts, suggested the 208V at 3.08A unit, could cost $100-150 each (15¢-23¢/Wac).
Lastly, the company showed off its “Ensemble in a box” which allows two solar modules to be connected into a case that includes energy storage, inverters, and plugs to power things. The company noted the hardware was focused on the Indian market where energy poverty is a true societal challenge.
Enphase called this a $4 billion opportunity by 2022. With $2 billion of it being supporting the water pump market, $1.5 billion as standalone systems and another $500 million for mitigating extreme heat.
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I had a 18 KW Sunrun system installed December 2015 and works fine, but the salesman did not tell the truth (or maybe he just did not know) when I asked about the inverters being able to run when the grid goes down and the inverter manuals did not tell the truth about being able to monitor the panels without using the Internet. I have a 10 KW inverter and a 5 KW inverter and neither one allows me to get energy from the arrays when the grid goes down. I have a 20 KWhr lead acid battery bank that can be used to store energy and provide energy when the grid goes down, but is there a inverter or system that can provide energy to the existing panels (have optimizers) and inverters so I can get energy from the arrays when the grid goes down ?
Tesla Powerwall can do what you want.
The new generation of Enphase products will be able to do this.
When I had Sunrun install our solar I questioned if we lost power, could the panels provide power during the time they would be able to. The answer was no as the power had to be removed from the grid so there would be no power going out to interfere with repair work – safety issues. They do not provide any type of “switch” to allow you to redirect the power to your home only… as you would do if you had connected a generator.
When Brightbox or Tesla Powerwall become more established hopefully we will have more access to backup power.
Grid isolation is the problem and can be addressed in many different ways. One of the most expensive ESS, the Sonnen ecolinx can be set up as a smart system, using an onboard Radian 48VDC inverter to feed smart circuit breaker circuits that could be isolated from the grid to power some critical home circuits for hours or days with solar PV panels powering the critical circuits.
The down side is a lot of systems are set up string panels with a DC buss voltage of 300 to 400VDC into a house inverter that is grid tied. The grid tied equipment will shut down when the grid fails. At this time I only know of two battery packs that can be used in a “high voltage” DC buss. TESLA and LG Chem can address a buss in the ‘nominal’ 350VDC range. A lot of the other ESS out there are based on 48VDC. It is the Kludged together solar PV system the owner thinks they’re getting that will be a maintenance nightmare when things go wrong. There is only one inverter system that can be set up for grid tied, grid tied battery backup, or as battery backed off grid with the same inverter unit. The Schneider XW6048 can do all three with the (proper) programming and electrical isolation techniques. Another technique is to break out solar PV panels and connect to a stand alone off grid battery backed system that feeds a secondary critical circuit house panel. The critical circuit panel will be powered off of the solar PV, battery, inverter all of the time. (IF) the off grid system fails or needs maintenance a break before make transfer switch could bridge the primary/secondary C.B. panels to run on grid power.
When you say optimizers, I assume you have a Solar Edge system. If that is the case, you can covert one of your inverters (or both) to the StorEdge inverter which is rated for 7,600 watts AC. The thing is, this inverter won’t work with your low voltage lead acid battery bank, but pairs nicely with the LG Chem Lithium Ion 10 kwh battery pack. The StorEdge inverter has 2 AC connections and an internal transfer switch so when the power goes out you aren’t back feeding the grid, but only supplying power to your subpanel.
Ensemble-in-a-Box could be incredibly huge for Enphase. It actually contains an IQ8 with BMS for the battery, and then (2) IQ8’s for each of the solar panels, wow! What a boom-box! Forget the Indian market…bring this to any US construction site, camp ground, shed seller, outdoor event, et al., and you can make a sale. The utility companies will be getting screwed. The new war slogan will be: we don’t need your damn (expensive) power!
Use a 3kw honda inverter generator and manual transfer switch to fool the inverters. Make sure to disconnect tha grid. Hence the manual transfer switch.
Building a home in Roatan Honduras and am looking for a start to finish solar company to power it and stay off the grid. Need enough power to run everything and central AC. Any suggestions and prices?
I’m always surprised by discussions & system diagrams like this that fail to include an EV charger + EV storage to system connection. Most residential battery storage seems to be sized & designed to flatten the duck curve and provide backup for short term (hours not days) power outage. Here in northern CA, the big issue is multi-day public safety power shut offs during wildfire season. For that, you need a really BIG battery, like the one in that Tesla you’ve parked in your garage. Most EVs used for typical daily commuting & charged at work during the day probably return to the garage at a 60% or higher charge level. That is a huge amount of emergency backup power. Probably enough to run your refrigerator, LED lights, and a small room air conditioner or the blower fan on your gas fired FAU for a few days. These residential systems really need full EV integration instead of a generator connection. Who In their right mind wants to maintain and store fuel for a generator if they drive an EV; makes no sense.