The German solar start-up Enpal reports a profit for the past fiscal year.
(Photo: Enpal )
Dusseldorf The solar start-up Enpal is benefiting from the boom in renewable energies and was Ebitda-profitable for the first time in the past financial year, i.e. in the operating result before all depreciation and taxes. The company posted an adjusted operating profit of 23 million euros in 2022 after a loss of 27.7 million in 2021.
Sales have quadrupled in the same period from 110 million to 415 million. “With this result, we have exceeded our strategic and financial goals,” commented CFO Jochen Cassel on the figures.
Enpal rents solar systems and batteries to private customers. At the end of a rental period of 20 years, customers can take over the system installed by Enpal for a small fee. Unlike in the USA, for example, such leasing models are still rare in Germany.
Overall, the company has set itself the goal of installing one million solar systems by 2030. Despite the latest success story, there is still a long way to go: The company currently has 45,000 installed systems. However, 18,000 new customers were added in 2022, a significant increase compared to 10,000 in the previous year.
Enpal is part of an industry that is expanding rapidly. According to plans by Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens), 80 percent of the electricity should come from renewable energies by 2030. Photovoltaic systems on roofs should become standard.
Enpal is Germany’s first green unicorn
Added to this are the after-effects of the energy crisis. Owners have been asking for more stable energy costs since last year at the latest. Here, too, systems for house installation are increasingly in demand in the private sector.
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The German Solar Industry Association announced growth of 146 percent in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period last year. 159,000 photovoltaic systems on the roofs of private households went into operation during this period.
The start-up founded in 2017 rose to become Germany’s first green unicorn in 2021. This is what companies with an enterprise value of more than one billion are called. The company enjoys high investments and was able to double its valuation to 2.25 billion euros earlier in the year. The investors include the large US financial investor TPG and the Japanese investment giant Softbank.
Cassel attributes the profit now achieved to investments in the product portfolio. Enpal no longer just rents solar systems, but also offers packages with battery storage and charging stations for electric cars. Customers usually opt for a combination of system and battery storage. Charging stations that are connected to the photovoltaic system are also being purchased more and more frequently.
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