Enphase Energy Launches IQ Batteries in France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland

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This is shortened from the original press release dated today.
Saul

Enphase Energy Launches IQ Batteries in France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland

Enphase announced today that it has started shipping IQ™ Batteries to customers in France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, further expanding the product’s availability in the European market.

SolarPower Europe released its latest European Market Outlook for residential battery storage and is predicting significant growth across the continent in the coming years. The report predicts up to 11 GWh of residential battery storage could be installed by the end of 2026, which is nearly 5x growth from the 2.3 GWh installed in 2021. Additionally, the Netherlands, France, and Switzerland have all set aggressive clean energy targets to help drive this transition.

“We love that Enphase IQ Batteries can be configured for the sizing of a large or small system, accommodating our customers’ unique clean energy needs,” said Julien Gouin, co-founder of SMART TO, an installer of Enphase products in France. “Enphase’s battery systems and easy-to-use mobile app will deliver world-class reliability, resilience, and control for French homeowners.”

The Enphase® Energy System™ with IQ Batteries offers configurations ranging from 3.5kWh to an aggregate 42kWh and can be upgraded throughout the lifetime of the system. Enphase’s IQ Batteries accommodate over-the-air software upgrades for enhanced longevity and come with a 10-year limited warranty. Homeowners can also use the Enphase® App to monitor performance and intelligently manage their systems. This includes the self-consumption feature, which minimizes the use of electricity from the grid. In addition, Enphase offers 24/7 customer support.

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About 80% of ENPH’s revenue comes from the US today. Please correct me on this if I am wrong. They are highly dependent on the US market for their growth, even though international sales, especially Europe, are very strong.

Now, here is a quote from the CFO of SEDG regarding US market growth expectations. He spoke at the Wells Fargo Clean Energy Symposium last month.

Analyst
I was just wondering if you could comment in terms of the demand trends that you’re seeing in the U.S. resi market. There were some weakness in January, I guess. But did you think that’s been picking up into February and March? Just any clarity you can provide there?

Ronen Faier
So maybe I was a little bit criticized because of it, we don’t see the U.S. market being very, I would say, fast-growing market this year, not to say maybe that it will be relatively flat. We do not see a big chance that it will slow down but we do not see it as a high-growth market. We do not have yet a lot of data about February and March, of course and given where we are in the quarter, I’m not sure that I can comment too much. But our view has not changed dramatically. And this is coming from an analysis of the market.

The first thing is that the combination of low electricity prices, high interest rates and the fact that it is a very loan biased market in a sense, create a situation where you get relatively long return on investment while you take relatively high risk because of the size of the installation. Installations in the U.S. are more expensive by about sometimes 40% to 50% more expensive than in Europe. So that’s the one thing. Second thing is that the IRA, we believe, creates a little bit of a counterproductive impacted the very first year because until now, when the ITC used to go down year-over-year, you knew that if you’re waiting for the next year, you will get lower tax credit. So there was an incentive to make a quick decision. Now with the ITC set for the next 10 years, interest rates being high and I believe that most people believe that they will not be as high. And electricity price is not hiking so quickly – the most interesting thing to do is actually to wait and see what happens. And therefore, we do not see a lot of growth.

And the last thing, by the way, the NEM 3.0 that does add a little bit more a certainty to the market. So that’s why we believe that it’s going to be flattish to a small growth market this year. We’ll be happy to see that we’re wrong. But at least now on this 36% of our overall business, because 64% is happening outside of the United States, we take a very cautious approach.

Yes, SEDG is a different company, but in the same industry. And such perspectives, especially from competitors of stocks that we like, give us food for thought.

Cheers!

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This is the breakdown ENPH management gave us last Q:

  • 71% US/29% Int’l (mostly Europe)
  • Europe +21% QoQ and 130%+ YoY
  • US +15% QoQ and 59% YoY
  • Q1 expected to be light in US due to macro and seasonality
  • expects momentum to rebound in Q2 and second half

International is worth watching but certainly large enough to move the needle particularly with the releases we are seeing recently.

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Here’s a quote from Enphase:

“Our U.S. and international revenue mix for Q4 was 71% and 29% respectively.

In the U.S., our revenue increased 15% sequentially and 59% year-on-year… …In Europe, our revenue increased 21% sequentially and over 130% year-on-year, led by strong demand in Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and the UK."

They went on to say:

"We had record sell-through and record installer count in Q4 as we continue to grow our business.

We started shipping our IQ8 microinverters into Netherlands and France in Q4. We are working hard to introduce IQ8 into other European countries shortly. Also, we are currently shipping IQ batteries into Germany and Belgium. We expect to start shipping IQ batteries into Austria, France, Netherlands and Spain in the first half of this year.”

Saul

PS - And I would have to think that OPEC announcing cutting production to raise oil prices would only be a stimulant for the solar market in Europe.

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In addition, the US growth concerns have been known for a while and have been reflected in the current valuation whereas the European advancements are news.

Considering the approach to calls in Q4 taken by pretty much all companies I heard, I think that any potential Q1 surprises in the US for ENPH are more likely than not to be on the positive side.

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