[caption id="attachment_53664" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Artist rendering of Enphase Energy's planned Europe lab in France"][/caption]
PETALUMA -- Enphase Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq:ENPH), today said it is setting up a new laboratory in Lyon, France, for local testing of the company’s European products.
The testing lab will allow Enphase to monitor, support and ensure compliance of its products from within Europe. Enphase opened offices in Lyon in March 2011 to serve the Benelux region and Milan, Italy.
“The European market is crucial in our development strategy and building out our global presence," said Olivier Jacques, director of Enphase Energy France and Benelux. “Expanding with this new lab demonstrates our commitment to the European markets as well as our ability to quickly address customer needs.”
According to IMS Research, the Benelux region has seen an impressive, steady increase in solar installations over the last several years. IMS notes in 2008, Benelux saw 52 megawatts of solar systems installed, with this number jumping to 765 megawatts in 2011. The region is projected to continue growing to 833 megawatts by 2013.
IMS also projects that France will remain a sizable market for solar installations in the coming years.
The primary mission of the European testing lab is to provide local technical support and analysis for Enphase microinverters deployed in the France and Benelux regions.
The new European lab will work in tandem with the North American lab in Petaluma to create global consistency and facilitate regional knowledge sharing. In January, Enphase leased 16,000sf of research and development space in a former Telecom Valley building at 1380 Redwood Way.
Product certification activities will also take place at the new testing lab in conjunction with North America. State-of-the-art environmental and simulation testing equipment will populate the new facility as well as tools to test Enphase products for the European grid.
