When a company operating within the solar sector expands from its heartland into new territories, there’s a steep learning curve and the faint threat of failure. On the other hand, there’s an overwhelming sense of opportunity. Olivier Jacques talks us through his organisation’s expansion into Europe, and the lessons he’s learned.
In less than five years since shipping its first products, Enphase Energy has grown from a small start-up in Northern California to a publically held company with a growing global footprint. As the company has expanded, its Silicon Valley heritage has shaped the strategy for growth. Having recently been appointed lead of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), my new role demonstrates Enphase’s rapid and continuing success. Here I explore the opportunities and challenges our American success has meant for our European strategy, and map out key learnings other companies hoping to do the same may benefit from.
Microinverters convert direct current (DC) into alternating current (AC) directly at the solar panel level, rather than through a string as traditional inverter technology does. This eliminates the issue of a single point of failure in standard string inverters (as seen with Christmas tree lights). The history of the microinverter is, like any new technology, not without its setbacks. While widely acknowledged as more efficient, in the early years of development it faced challenges of manufacturing cost, unit reliability and power conversion efficiency.
It wasn’t until the Enphase Microinverter launched in 2008, that the first commercially viable microinverter became available. The secret to the company’s success was that co-founders Martin Fornage and Raghu Belur rebuilt the solar inverter from the ground-up. The Enphase Microinverter System quickly became recognised as a unique system-based, high-tech approach to solar energy. Leveraging expertise in semiconductor integration, power electronics and networking technologies, the technical team forever changed possibilities for the performance, intelligence and reliability of solar energy systems with the Enphase Microinverter System.
A global vision
As Enphase evolved and improved the product offering, receiving recognition across the industry, the company enjoyed significant market success. Having captured over a third of the California market, in 2011 the company was ready to expand abroad. That year Enphase opened two offices in Europe to cover the Western, Central and Southern regions; followed by a UK office in August 2012 to cover Northern regions. In April 2013 I was appointed Managing Director of EMEA to facilitate the company’s continued expansion across the continents.
Our approach to entering Europe has been strategic and measured. Our American heritage is of course a significant building block for growth, bringing numerous opportunities and many lessons learned.
An American legacy:
