Enphase Energy  Enphase Energy is a NASDAQ-listed energy technology company headquartered in Fremont, California. Enphase designs and manufactures software-driven home energy solutions that span solar generation, home energy storage and web-based monitoring and control. Enphase has shipped about twenty million solar microinverters, primarily into the residential and commercial markets in North America, Europe and Australia. Microinverters convert the direct current power from the solar panel (DC) directly into grid-compatible alternating current (AC) for use or export. Enphase was the first company to successfully commercialise the microinverter on a wide scale, and remains the market leader in their production. Enphase Energy pioneered the concept of a microinverter. The basic idea behind a microinverter is to convert, manage and monitor energy per panel, rather than the entire array of panels. This reduces the size of the inverter that can be placed on the back of the panel, producing an "AC panel". Such a system can be connected directly to the grid, or to each other to produce larger arrays. This contrasts with the traditional central inverter approach, where many panels are connected together in series on the DC-side and then run en-masse to a single larger inverter. In the aftermath of the 2001 Telecoms crash, Martin Fornage of Cerent Corporation was looking for new projects. When he saw the low performance of the string inverter for the solar array on his ranch, he partnered with another Cerent engineer, Raghu Belur, and they formed PVI Solutions. The two tapped Paul Nahi to be CEO at the end of 2006, and Fornage, Belur and Nahi formed Enphase Energy, Inc. in early 2007. Thereafter, the first prototype microinverter was developed. With approximately $6 million in private equity by 2008, Enphase released its first product, the M175, to moderate success. Their 2nd generation product, 2009's M190, was far more successful, with sales of about 400,000 units in 2009 and early 2010. Enphase quickly grew to 13% marketshare for residential systems by mid-2010, aiming for 20% by year-end. They shipped their 500,000th inverter in early 2011, and their 1,000,000th in September of the same year. The 3rd generation M215 was released in the summer of 2011, and had sold over a million of all models in 2011, bringing their installed base to 1.55 million inverters and 34.4% market share.