The most important thing in a nutshell:
- Rent solar solutions instead of buying
- A complete package for a climate neutral home
- Maintenance, repairs and insurance included
Enpal is a provider of energy solutions for homes. The business model is to rent solar systems. Shopping has also been possible for some time. The offer also includes electricity storage, energy managers, wall boxes, heat pumps and low cost green electricity. In short, Enpal offers the complete package for a climate-neutral home – with no upfront payment, including maintenance, repairs and insurance.
The startup Enpal was founded in 2017. It has its headquarters in Berlin and has already acquired more than 70,000 customers and implemented more than 70,000 systems. In addition, the company successfully entered the heating market in 2023 with more than 1,000 newly installed heat pumps. Enpal has been profitable since 2022 and is considered the first greentech unicorn in Germany, ie a young company whose valuation has broken the $1 billion mark.
This is what Enpal offers
Enpal sells complete solutions for the use of renewable energy. Homeowners can therefore be independent of electricity companies and electricity prices rise. The promise is: comprehensive self-sufficiency in power supply, heating and mobility. The benefit for the customer: Enpal does everything for them and makes solar energy as easily available as possible.
To do this, Enpal buys directly from the manufacturer, trains the craftsmen, takes care of the finances, installs the system and provides maintenance and repair of the free for 20 years. Advice, planning and insurance are also included in the price. Through Enpal, customers can quickly enjoy a solar system, a storage system and an electric car charging station, initially for a purchase cost of 0 euros. Because Enpal makes full payment in advance. The customer only pays when the photovoltaic system provides electricity, regardless of whether he buys, rents or finances it.
Enpal has also developed a solution with zero investment costs for heat pumps: flexible installment purchases, which combine the advantages of renting and buying. The size of the monthly installments can be set flexibly and is limited at 200 euros. The customer can pay for his heat pump over a maximum of 15 years. Special rebates are possible and additional maintenance and service can be ordered.
Prices to buy and rent
Enpal offers solar systems, which include photovoltaic modules, energy storage, inverters and other necessary components, for rent or purchase. Rental prices for PV systems start at 98 euros per month. The purchase price of an average PV system with 10 kWp output and 10 kWh storage is around 19,860 euros.
For heat pumps, device prices start at 7,800 euros. Anyone who chooses to buy flexible installments will pay between 66 and 200 euros per month.
Positive experiences with Enpal
- Enpal’s financing model significantly lowers the barriers to getting started with solar energy. Instead of high purchase and installation costs, you can only pay fixed monthly installments if you wish.
- After signing the contract, customers will have six months to decide whether they would like to continue leasing the complete package which includes a PV system, electrical storage, inverter and wall box or would prefer to buy. So Enpal takes a lot of time for its customers to find affordable financing.
- Enpal’s energy experts provide free advice and arrange an energy solution tailored to the customer’s individual needs. The offer is non-binding.
- After the contract ends, Enpal takes care of all the other steps, from planning and installation to maintenance and repairs.
- The installation is done by our own craftsmen and by local craft businesses. In this way, Enpal strengthens the local trade and avoids long journeys and times.
- Craft businesses can order all modules through the Enpal platform and have them delivered to their warehouse or directly to the construction site within two days.
- Enpal saves the customer the trouble of looking for finance and offers themselves from banks, tradesmen and energy consultants. As Enpal offers everything from one source, it usually takes just six weeks from consultation to completed installation.
- After the system is commissioned, the customer will continue to receive support. Enpal takes care of the technology, maintains it and replaces defective elements free of charge.
- In addition to a 20-year guarantee on all system components, customers also receive a 20-year fixed price guarantee. This ensures design security.
Critics
- Market watchers criticize Enpal for being too focused on rapid expansion. Growth is pushed forward aggressively and is partly dependent on customers, employees and other companies. In fact, Enpal has become the market leader in a very short period of time. The company installs 3,000 photovoltaic systems per month and has expanded its offering to include storage, wall boxes, heat pumps and green electricity.
- With rapid growth comes occasional lapses in quality and service. Sometimes customers think that some knitters are poorly trained. There were also complaints about quality defects in the installation as well as vandalism and botched construction. Enpal is aware of the problems and is working to eliminate them.
- Customer service also sometimes shows weaknesses. Customers repeatedly complain about how difficult it is to access. There are also complaints that callbacks that have been announced, links for video conferences do not arrive or there is no response to email and WhatsApp requests.
- Some interested parties are of the opinion that Enpal’s offers are too expensive. Others believe that the profit calculations shown in the sales negotiations are too optimistic, which is why the payback periods are longer than expected.
Alternatives to Enpal
Due to the high construction costs, it is particularly important to compare sustainable energy systems. In addition to Enpal, Enercity also offers innovative rental and purchase solutions. But it is worth looking at the 1KOMMA5 ° starter thanks to its energy management system and the guaranteed electricity price for storage, heat pump and wall box.
Energy: sustainable products and services related to energy
The Offer from Enercity In addition to the solar package that includes PV modules, inverters, energy storage and energy managers, it also includes heat pumps, wall boxes and green electricity tariffs with a price guarantee.
Like Enpal, Enercity also enables the purchase of photovoltaic systems and heat pumps for zero investment costs, ie for rent instead of purchase. Contract terms are 15 to 20 years for PV systems and 15 years for heat pumps. Maintenance packages can be booked optionally.
With 3,400 employees and more than 9 billion euros in annual sales, Enercity AG in Hanover is one of the ten largest energy suppliers in Germany.
1KOMMA5 °: A startup with market leadership ambitions
The Hamburg start-up 1KOMMA5 ° installs photovoltaic systems, electrical storage, wall boxes and heat pumps. Another component is the Heartbeat energy management system. Its software controls connected storage systems, heat pumps and electric car charging stations.
A heartbeat can also be connected directly to the electrical exchange. This ensures that self-produced solar power is sold on the market when prices are high and, conversely, bought when prices are low. Through this control, the company guarantees an average annual electricity price of 15 cents/kWh at all customers with corresponding users for up to 6,000 kWh per year for two years.
1KOMMA5 ° operates more than 75 locations with approximately 2,000 employees in Germany, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Denmark, Spain and Australia. The company, which was founded just 2.5 years ago, has already installed more than 280,000 energy systems and aims to be the leading market supplier across Europe by 2030.
Common questions about Enpal
Enpal was founded in 2017 by Mario Kohl and two colleagues under the name Evergreen. Mario Kohl remains CEO to this day. The previously studied industrial engineer had made a name for himself in the startup scene as co-founder and CEO of the Beko buyer portal. In addition to banks, savings banks and prominent individual investors, Enpal’s investors include some of the world’s largest impact and technology investors, including TPG Rise Climate, Softbank Vision Fund II, Princeville Climate Technologies, HV Capital, Activate Capital and The Westly Group.
At the end of the 20-year lease period, the solar system legally becomes the property of the homeowner. All you have to do is pay a symbolic transfer fee of 1 euro to Enpal. Alternatively, the system can be returned to Enpal at the end of the rental period. The company removes the models upon request and collects them.
In this case, there are two options. First: The homeowner exercises his right of purchase to reclaim the rental system from Enpal to sell along with the house. Second: The home owner stipulates in the notarized purchase agreement for his house that the buyer takes over the lease agreement for the solar system.
2024-08-20 00:58:29
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