Enpase possible stock delisting - questioning whether to sign contract

[ERiXN]

I'm about ready to finalize a contract for LG 335W panels with Enphase IQ6 Plus micro inverters. Today the news has plenty of sites indicating NASDAQ notifying Enphase they may delist them from the exchange. This to me indicates they may be a bankruptcy risk too. I don't care for optimizers/Inverters because they go toes up around 10-12 years pretty regularly around warranty expiration and there are plenty of postings with people having issues and challenges getting support or installers to deal with problems.

I'm fairly tempted to over pay and buy 360W AC SunPower panels as they seem to be more stable financially and better bet from a warranty perspective right now.

Thoughts?

[ButchDeal]

Sunpower is not doing that well financially either.


BTW you can ext no the warranty on solaredge inverters to 25 years for a little extra.

[ERiXN]

Thanks for your response Butch. Is an extended warranty like a GE warranty or from the manufacturer? Do you feel SolarEdge is better positioned financially?

[peakbagger]

No value to an extended warranty unless its covered by a third party firm (like an insurance company). Unfortunately the insurance company is not going to keep producing product or maintain inventory so at best you may get a payout at some point in the future after Enphase goes belly up. That's the fundamental issue with designing a system around a very specific type of component.. Best case with Enphase is they file chapter 11, walk away from debts and prove they have a viable business model. Unfortunately its a race to the bottom on the panel level solutions where firms are lining up to see how much money they can lose to lock in the market,

[SunEagle]

I would think one way to make sure you have a micro inverter if Enphase goes belly up would be to research other companies that make drop in replacement equipment.

At least there should be a market to replace all of the Enphase units that fail and are not covered by an insurance policy.

[littleharbor]

I've always been a big fan of having backup units on hand. Don't know how keen you are at buying some extra micros right up front, if it were me, and I was concerned, I'd buy an extra half dozen for that eventuality when it comes time to replace.

[JSchnee21]

I had originally wanted Enphase as well. But I got talked out of it by every installer I spoke with. No regrets with SE vs. Enphase -- I'm very pleased with my new Solar Edge system. I also got the SolarEdge 25yr extended warranty on the inverter. I think the optimizers are already 25 (or their extension was included). I don't think the SE warranty is underwritten by a 3rd party insurance company at this point -- but I'm not sure. I didn't notice any real change in cost for the longer warranty but I didn't specifically ask to compare. My inverter (11.4kw) was only ~$1800-1900 anyway so the extended warranty was probably only a few hundred bucks. Save yourself $300-500 on the GSM Cellular kit and go with hardwired Ethernet if you can.

NOTE that if your LG 335w's are Neon2's (and not NeonR's) they only have a 12yr MFG warranty -- though I'm sure they'll last much longer.

[JSchnee21]

Hi ERiXN,

Sorry, I just saw you're other post. Your looking at quantity 60 LG335's? Is this for residential or commercial? You'll need one or more fairly sizable inverters. Split phase 240 or three phase 208V or 480V?

How were you planning to back-feed your panel(s) using the micros?

-Jonathan

[solarix]

I'm so glad I have stayed away from installing microinverters...

[rickj]

Enphase and Flextronics (their manufacturer) have signed an ageement: https://seekingalpha.com/article/408...nics-sell-news .. "to allow Flextronics to market, manufacture, and sell certain Enphase products. Such rights may be used to assure continuity of supply to Enphase customers"
Flextronics also is SolarEdge's manufacturer btw.