Enphase joins Tesla as latest clean-tech firm to enter S&P

[NEW YORK] Another clean-tech firm is joining the S&P 500 just weeks after Tesla's historic inclusion in the index - capping a banner year for alternative energy.

Enphase Energy, a California-based company that builds solar-power components, will join the index before trading opens Jan 7.

Its entrance is the exclamation point on a landmark year for the company and for the solar industry broadly.

The company's shares have surged 562 per cent since the end of 2019, while the WilderHill Clean Energy Index is up 206 per cent.

"The big message is that the S&P is starting to evolve to reflect what's happening," said Joe Osha, an analyst at JMP Securities.

"You have markets recognising that these companies matter - that decarbonisation is a real thing. It's important. It has to happen."

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Enphase, which makes components called microinverters that convert solar power from direct to alternating current, rose as much as 6.4 per cent Thursday.

Also included in the index is clean-energy giant NextEra Energy, which this year briefly surpassed oil supermajor Exxon Mobil in market value.

BLOOMBERG