If you’re new to solar, you can be a little overwhelmed with all of the choices and one of the primary things you need decide on Is which company to get your inverters from.
In our first installation we used Enphase microinverters behind each of our panels to convert the solar direct current to house usable alternating current. However, two installations later, the company that we like the most is now recommending APsystems microinverters for our next solar installation.
On the surface nothing seemed wrong with that in fact we couldn’t think of a quick reason why we would care where the micro wind burgers came from because almost all solar equipment including the microinverters come with a 25 year warranty. Then we watched this video and it changed our perspective substantially. Note that we have nothing to with this person or their company:
The presenter points out that warranties are completely meaningless if the company goes out of business, and much the Electric Vehicles, there are many solar companies that WILL go out of business in the coming years.
The first thing you have to worry about is longevity of the company that’s doing the installation for you because they’re your primary contact for the warranty. Presumably they’ll be covering some or all of the labor costs for the repair but after that you have to worry about the only thing that’s likely to actually fail in the next 25 years which is the microinverters or string inverter.
And that got us to asking who are the big inverter companies in the United States and Canada.
| Company | Market Share | Primary Business | Head Office Location | Design Location | Manufacturing Location | |
| 1 | Enphase Energy | 45% | Residential | Fremont, CA | Fremont, CA | Mexico |
| 2 | SolarEdge Technologies | 30% | Residential | Milpitas, CA | Israel | China |
| 3 | SMA America | 10% | Commercial | Rocklin, CA | Germany | Germany |
| 4 | Generac Power Systems | 5% | Residential | Waukesha, WI | Waukesha, WI | USA |
| 5 | Fronius USA | 3% | Commercial | Portage, IN | Austria | Austria |
| 6 | APsystems | 2% | Residential | Seattle, WA | China | China |
| 7 | Chilicon Power | 1% | Residential | Los Angeles, CA | Los Angeles, CA | USA |
| 8 | Magnum Energy | 1% | Off-grid | Everett, WA | Everett, WA | USA |
| 9 | Morningstar Corporation | <1% | Off-grid | Newtown, PA | Newtown, PA | Taiwan |
| 10 | Schneider Electric | <1% | Commercial | Boston, MA | France | China |
As you can see APsystems is not that big a player yet and most of their tech is designed and manufactured in China. China is a very fragile supply chain these days and it does not look like it is going to get better in the next decade.
| Aspect | Enphase Energy | APsystems |
| Corporate Scale | Large, publicly traded company | Medium-sized, privately held company |
| Business Size | Revenue of $634 million in Q3 2022 | Profitable growth, serving over 100 countries |
| Product Lines | Microinverters, energy storage, EV chargers | Microinverters, energy storage, rapid shutdown devices |
Both companies are leaders in the solar inverter market, but they differ in terms of scale and product offerings. Enphase has a broader range of products and a larger market presence, while APsystems focuses on innovative solutions for microinverters and energy storage.
We enjoy exploring new and innovative technology from companies like APsystems. However, we also value reliability and don’t want to face the hassle of replacing failed hardware 15 years down the line. It’s frustrating to think that we might have to replace all our microinverters just because the manufacturer either went out of business or no longer produces the necessary replacement parts.
Specifically, we needed to chose between the APsystems DS3 vs Enphase IQ7:
APsystems has been experiencing significant growth in recent years. By the end of 2020, their global cumulative microinverter shipments surpassed 1 GW, and they recently surpassed 2 GW of cumulative shipments worldwide. APsystems is currently growing at an impressive 50% per year:
| Year | APsystems Cumulative Shipments in GW’s |
| 2010 | 0 |
| 2012 | 0.1 |
| 2014 | 0.3 |
| 2016 | 0.5 |
| 2018 | 0.8 |
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2022 | 1.5 |
| 2024 | 2 |
We really want to use the APsystems DS3, but are also really worried about the future of the company. What do do?
In the end we decided to ask the companies on our short list who had recommended the APsystems DS3 to reconsider their choice of APsystems or to pitch why we should not worry about APsystems.
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