Enphase Energy co-founder focuses on bigger picture amidst solar-industry turmoil

Raghu Belur, the storied co-founder and chief product officer of microinverter giant Enphase Energy Inc., insists on taking the long-term, big-picture view.

Belur spoke with pv magazine USA about his professional aspirations in terms of broad abstractions such as energy democratization, grid architecture and power-supply decentralization.

In that light, it can be comforting to hear Belur articulate how today’s volatile U.S. solar policy and industry conditions are mere speed bumps in the irrepressible spread of solar.

Though the commercialization of solar can be traced back five decades, Belur maintains that solar is just getting started. For one thing, solar’s U.S. solar penetration remains in the middle single-digit percentages.

“I feel good we are doing something very meaningful in the world,” the engagingly intense industry lion said. “I also think there’s more we need to do. We’re at the bottom of the first innings. We still have a long, long way to go.”

Nevertheless, since co-founding the company in 2006, Belur and Martin Fornage, along with many other executives, have ministered over the transformation of a once-radical idea – to use microinverters, rather than string inverters, to regulate individual solar panels – into a company posting annual revenue nearing $1.5 billion and a market capitalization of $5.7 billion.

If Enphase’s rise reflects solar-industry growth, you’d have to say progress is being made.

Along the way, you can count on Belur to hew toward the biggest possible scope – beyond residential or commercial, geographic markets or segmented products.

This year’s federal policy chaos besieging the U.S. solar industry? It’s nothing new, Belur says. “Energy and politics have always been intertwined since time immemorial,” he says. “It’s because energy is the lifeblood of the economy.”

Belur considers politics to be energy-market externalities– impactful, often unpredictable, not always priced in ahead of time. In five to 10 years, he hopes, the industry will outgrow its needs for incentives, such as tax credits. “They should be a catalyst and not a crutch,” he says. (By the same token, Belur notes, fossil-fuel industries have yet to wean themselves off federal incentives after relying on them for more than a century.)

The macro mentality of Belur, who possesses a master’s degree in electrical engineering as well as an MBA, predates Enphase’s birth in California.

Belur points out that he and Fornage could have named their startup something like Enphase Microinverters Inc. but instead chose Enphase Energy. The broader mission has undergirded the organization and its products, he says, as engines of a revolution to decentralize control over energy by increasingly placing it in the hands of consumers and organizations.

As a matter of fact, Enphase ceased more than a decade ago strictly marketing microinverters that convert direct current from individual solar panels into alternating current for use by electrical appliances or the common electrical grid. Enphase now is considered a leader in smart solar technology and plays a key role in advancing the spread of distributed solar-energy generation. Aside from microinverters, the company mainly offers:

Battery storage systems, such as its Enphase IQ Battery, enabling homeowners to store solar energy for use at night or during grid outages.
Energy-management software and mobile applications, such as the Enphase App, to give users real-time insights and control over energy production, storage and consumption.
Enphase Energy Systems encompassing microinverters, batteries, EV chargers and software for complete residential energy management.

Right now, the company also is navigating a gnarly array of strategic challenges, including:

Intensifying market-share pressure, notably from Tesla’s Powerwall 3 battery system.
Plummeting revenue from a weak European market.
The business-dousing impacts of heightened interest rates and solar-policy uncertainties.
Its global corporate restructuring, including a 17% cut in its global workforce.
Upcoming trade tariffs on Chinese imports, particularly on battery cell packs.
Sharp stock losses stemming from earnings-report misses.

Though the company’s financial position remains solid, it’s no wonder that Belur might have learned to look to overarching energy-industry headings to help the company overcome short-term ups and downs in the here and now.

Belur is animated by his adamant belief that energy infrastructure – an abstract term for the basic electrical gear and networks that produce, transmit and distribute energy – should become vastly more efficient, reliable and clean.

He repeatedly makes the case that technology tends to evolve by becoming more decentralized, cost-efficient and reliable. Think of the transition from wired home telephones controlled by technology in central offices to mobile phones containing the technology to control them.

According to Belur’s network-systems analysis, a technology’s evolution, over time, pushes intelligence to end users within its network.

The pattern is no different for energy, he says. Intelligence about energy technology is being pushed into homes and businesses by way of system applications encompassing solar installations, energy storage and energy data-monitoring and management.

Toward that end, Enphase’s invention of the world’s first microinverters turned solar panels into independent energy producers. Next to empower end users was Enphase’s deployment of a bidirectional data-collection and communications component, now called Enphase IQ Gateway.

“We re-architected it from the bottom up,” Belur says.

Energy democratization is gradually giving “complete control” to homeowners, especially in markets with high solar penetration such as Hawaii (20%), Germany (14%) and the Netherlands (10%). Yet, it’s “still very early,” Belur says. “We are very, very far away from democratization.”

Industry maturity will come when most homeowners can make ultimate energy decisions based on businesses competing within wholly free-market system, he suggests.

Paradoxically, by shifting from paying retail to wholesale rates for energy contributions from residential solar-system owners, California is helping the solar industry to grow up, Belur says. “We’re on our way to becoming mature,” he says.

Moreover, the gap appears to be closing faster now, considering that an estimated 84% t of additions to U.S. energy output came from solar and storage in 2024, Belur says.

Setting aside Belur’s industry enthusiasms, does Belur never itch for another assignment after 19 years of inhabiting essentially the same role within the same company in the same region of the same state?

Such an artificial change is unnecessary as Enphase evolves to become a new corporate animal every day he works there, he says. A former boss once told him, “It’s only the name of the company on the side of the building that remains the same,” he says. Rather, workforce evolution and continuous innovation – the critical necessity of long-term success – regenerates any good company from one phase to the next.

At Enphase, he says, “The innovation engine is cranking right along.”

Consistently embracing new company players and ideas can require effort and discipline, Belur says. But it’s not so hard if you love the work. “You can influence that transformation massively, and that’s fun,” he says.

It’s also not fruitful to bog down in industry challenges, especially considering the massively rising demand for energy, he says. A 40% increase in power demand by 2035 is expected to stem from a steady rise in home electrification and AI-driven data centers.

“That’s massive,” Belur says. “All that demand needs to be met.” Towards that end, lawmakers must steer clear of placing roadblocks in front of any source of energy. “It’s got to be an all-of-the-above approach.”

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