Microinverter and home energy storage system supplier Enphase Energy has “relatively good availability” of its products despite high demand in the current supply chain environment, its marketing director for Europe told Energy-Storage.news.
In response to a question about supply chain issues during an interview at Electrical Energy Storage (EES) / Intersolar Munich last week, Peter Halmans, marketing director Europe said: “Although the demand for our products is extremely high, we still have relatively good availability of our products. We have become experts in planning very well and because of that thorough planning, we are able actually to supply our customers at this moment with what they need in the markets. We recently announced we will open a factory in Romania too to ensure we are even closer to our customers.”
That’s not to say the company isn’t feeling supply chain constraints, as its CEO Badri Kothandaraman said when it released its strong Q4 2021 results, which saw IQ battery orders jump 53%.
“Our lead times for batteries are still long today at approximately 14 to 16 weeks primarily due to logistics challenges, which are global,” Kothandaraman said while discussing results with analysts in February.
The company, which primarily sells microinverters that convert DC power from solar PV panels to usable AC power for homes, launched an energy storage system in 2015. See Energy-Storage.news’ interview with its co-founder at the time.
When asked why going into storage made sense for Enphase, Halmans said: “We’re on the road to becoming a company that is strong in managing the energy of homes. So we help consumers to transfer sunshine, for example, into usable energy for the house. And it’s logical that you want to do something with that energy source, right? You want to store it somewhere and reuse it the moment you really need it. So that’s why the batteries have been a logical next step for us.
“It’s also the next step to adding other functionalities to our portfolio and to our cloud-based solution which will enable consumers to manage their households’ energy, and to be a leading company in the electrification of households. We are extremely focused on residential storage with maybe a bit of small commercial, and our customers love that focus.”