What happened
Last week, news that Enphase Energy (ENPH -5.56%) was teaming up with SunPower Corporation to create a new solar module incorporating SunPower solar panels and Enphase microinverters helped push up Enphase stock 3.7%.
Today, a similar deal -- this time between Enphase and Australia's REA Solar -- is having nearly twice the effect on Enphase shares, which are up 6.8% as of 11:40 a.m. EDT.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
As Enphase announced in a press release this morning, solar energy solutions provider REA intends to pair Enphase's IQ 7+ microinverters with its own "proprietary high efficiency, high-density cell solar modules" to "provide more solar power production from a smaller space for both residential and commercial customers across Australia."
No specific value was attributed to the relationship in the press release. According to (limited, because it's a private company) data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, REA Global appears to be a smallish company with perhaps as little as $8 million or so in annual revenue. The company also partners with Tesla, utilizing that company's Powerwall batteries for solar energy storage.
Now what
My overall impression of today's Enphase announcement is that it's a rather small deal -- less significant, in fact, than the partnership with SunPower last week. And yet, Enphase shares are rising more on today's news than they did on the SunPower announcement. This doesn't make much sense, unless investors are coming to the conclusion that Enphase is gaining momentum and racking up partners (albeit not all of large size) around the globe, and that more partnerships will be announced in the days and weeks to come.
That may be the case. If it doesn't happen, though, I'd expect to see the gains Enphase racked up today slowly fade away, as investors realize that this latest partnership simply isn't as big, or as significant, as it might at first glance appear.
