Enphase Joins Tesla as Latest Clean Tech Firm to Enter S&P 500

(Bloomberg) -- Another clean tech firm is joining the S&P 500 just weeks after Tesla Inc.’s historic inclusion in the index.

Enphase Energy Inc., a California-based company that builds components that make solar power work, will join the index before trading opens Jan. 7. Its entrance is the exclamation point on a banner year for the company and for the solar industry broadly. The company’s shares have surged 562% since the end of 2019, while the WilderHill Clean Energy Index is up 206%.

“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 recognizing that these companies matter -- that decarbonization is a real thing. It’s important. It has to happen.”

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

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