News

Enphase Energy Raises $15 Million For Its Solar Micro-Inverter System

September 15, 2008 by Jeff Shepard

Enphase Energy, Inc. announced that it has raised $15 million in new funding to expand manufacturing of its products. New investor RockPort Capital Partners led the round, and existing institutional investors Third Point Ventures and Applied Ventures, LLC, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials, Inc., also participated.

"We are excited to join the Enphase team," said Todd Wilson, General Partner at RockPort Capital Partners, who will join the Enphase Energy board of directors. "The company’s products are industry-defining and Enphase has proven management, a soaring market, and an excellent value proposition. We are committed to helping Enphase reach the next levels of success."

"With thousands of units in the field and increasing demand, customer acceptance of Enphase Micro-inverters has exceeded expectations," said Paul Nahi, President and CEO of Enphase Energy. "Customers see the considerable economic benefits of the Enphase Micro-inverter Systems – increased energy production, higher reliability and reduced operational costs. This additional investment will enable us to respond to the accelerating demand for our products."

Enphase Energy Micro-inverters are installed in commercial and residential solar power systems throughout the continental United States and Hawaii. Enphase products are compatible with most major brands of solar modules.

Enphase systems include high efficiency micro-inverters that convert the dc power from each solar module to grid compliant ac power. In addition, the Enphase Micro-inverters send performance information from each module to a secure website for analysis and visualization. Micro-inverters eliminate the need for a large centralized inverter. Enphase states that its Micro-inverter systems have demonstrated energy harvest gains between 5 and 25% over traditional inverters. The Micro-inverters have a Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of 119 years providing system availability of greater than 99.8%.