Enphase shares rise as FCC drafts inverter import ban

Enphase Energy shares rose Tuesday after the Federal Communications Commission began drafting a proposal to prohibit imports of certain foreign energy inverters. The proposal is described by regulators as addressing national security concerns and potential risks to grid operations.

The draft under consideration would bar importation of specific inverter models that regulators view as potential vulnerabilities to grid infrastructure. The measures being reviewed focus mainly on devices manufactured in China.

If the proposed restrictions are enacted, lower-cost Chinese units would face import barriers and installers could shift purchases toward U.S.-made equipment. Domestic microinverter suppliers would then operate in a market with reduced direct price competition from those foreign units.

Enphase is a leading supplier of residential microinverters. The company’s shares are up about 40% year-to-date but remain more than 30% below a recent peak. Shares of peer companies including SolarEdge also rose on Tuesday.

Enphase confirmed it has joined the Open Compute Project Foundation as a Platinum member and will participate in work on open standards for high-voltage direct-current rack architectures used in AI data centers.

The company is promoting its IQ SST platform for data center power. The device converts medium-voltage alternating current directly to low-voltage direct current for servers and uses a gallium nitride bi-directional switch architecture that Enphase targets at about 98.5% efficiency. The firm plans initial system demonstrations later this year, customer pilots in 2027 and volume shipments in 2028.

Hyperscale data center operators typically require multi-year validation cycles before adopting new power platforms, which means adoption and related revenue from the AI-infrastructure product line would occur over several years rather than immediately.

Regulatory action on inverter imports, results from planned demonstrations and the outcome of customer pilots will be key factors in determining how quickly Enphase’s business expands beyond the residential solar market.