Virtual Edition Rewind. You can catch yesterday’s virtual edition of SolarWakeup Live! About virtual sales and digital operations here. Thanks for all that joined.
Big News Monday. Stay tuned for some big news on Monday. In the meantime, here is the one thing that caught my eye in reviewing the earnings slides for each report outlining the performance in Q1 this year. Note that COVID impact largely started with two weeks left in the quarter and the commentary is more indicative of what the future holds. That being said, there is a consistent message that Q2 will be 30% of 2019 and we have already hit bottom.
Sunrun. 2020 brings thus far the highest percentage of leases as a function of total projects, back to early 2018 levels. Q1 this year was bigger than Q2 2019. Slides.
Vivint Solar. The company also exceeded Q2 of 2019 and every quarter in 2018. System installation cost are the highest they’ve been in years, unsure what would have caused that. Company now has cumulatively installed 1.3GW of solar on homes. Slides.
SunPower. Slides are showing the company in a quasi split environment, anticipating the manufacturing to go away in 2020 to the Maxeon entity. The manufacturing plants are either back up and running or scheduled to. Balance sheet still shows the 2 million shares of Enphase the company owns from the sale of Solarbridge a few years ago. Note to SunPower execs, anything you want to do for my Solarbridge inverters on my house circa 2012 would be appreciated. Slides
Enphase. In Q1 2019 the company generated net income of $2.7million. In Q1 2020 that increased to $68million with margins at almost 40%. The stock is trading nearly at pre-COVID levels while upside is still huge given revenues are less than half that of Solaredge and GTM reports market share to be about half in US residential. Slides
Solaredge. The company shipped more optimizers and inverters and delivered higher revenues in Q1 2020 than in Q4 2019. In this quarter that company shipped 1.8GW of inverters. Slides
First Solar. Here’s some scale for you, the First Solar pipeline is over 12GW now and their module roadmap presents a 500W module in the near future. Not too bad for low efficiency thin film. The manufacturing plants are up and running at nearly full capacity. Slides
- PV-Magazine: First Solar earnings – strong Q1 and an uncertain 2020 guidance — like most every solar firm
- Greentech Media: SolarEdge and Enphase See Growth Slowing as COVID-19 Hits Inverter Market
- Axios: Coronavirus could do long-term environmental harm by reducing green investments
- PV-Tech: How smart microgrids are changing neighbourhoods around the world
- GreenBiz: Leading economists – Green COVID-19 recovery best for jobs and growth
- Rocky Mountain Institute: Lowering Costs and Carbon for Minnesota Co-ops
- Utility Dive: Securing relief amid COVID-19: 4 considerations for utilities
- Solar Industry: COVID-19 Impacts California’s Solar+Storage Industry
Opinion
Best, Yann