What happened
Enphase Energy (ENPH 5.11%) doesn't report Q3 earnings until later this month, but that fact isn't holding the stock back this morning. Shares of the solar power microinverter manufacturer were up 3.2% as of 9:40 a.m. EDT on some good news from Down Under.
So what
Enphase announced this morning that an entire community in Australia -- specifically, "The Links, South West Rocks" retirement village in New South Wales -- has elected to install Enphase IQ7+ microinverters "to underpin a 1.2 MW private [solar power] grid network."
According to Enphase, this "carbon-neutral community ... will eventually feature 199 dwellings," most of which will be equipped with "16 x 370-watt solar panels." That sounds like a lot, but in fact, Enphase notes that the total cost of deploying its equipment will be just $950,000.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
That's good news for Enphase's new customers. The company expects that The Links, South West Rocks will recover the cost of its new system through savings on electricity bills "within approximately five years." It's perhaps less good news for the investors bidding up Enphase stock on this relatively tiny project, however -- less than $1 million in value for a company that did more than $1 billion in sales over the past year.
It's less good news, that is...unless other communities follow The Links, South West Rocks' example and begin buying Enphase microinverters for their own microgrids as well.
And that, in a nutshell, is what investors are hoping for today.
