Some first-tier companies in the US photovoltaic industry seem to have basically withstood the impact of the COVID-19 virus, but from a series of recently released financial data, it is expected that the revenue of these companies will decline in the second quarter.
The latest data from SunPower and Vivint Solar show that their installed capacity in the first quarter of 2020 is relatively strong, but they are now expected to slow down in the second quarter, which coincides with the outbreak time in the United States. The "bull market" in the first quarter and the "bear market" in the second quarter completely echoed the forecast of Sunrun, a well-known US residential developer. Sunrun said last week that it expects the photovoltaic business to slow down in the next few quarters. This is reflected in the two-quarter data released by SunPower. SolarEdge and Enphase, two inverter companies that dominate the U.S. market, achieved substantial growth in the first quarter of 2020, but both stated that as the epidemic is still prevalent, demand will decline in the coming months. Enphase postponed the release of its long-established home energy storage system.
SunPower expects to lose $ 1-120 million in the second quarter of 2020
SunPower said in its financial report that the company shipped a total of 538MW in the first quarter of 2020, an increase of 18% year-on-year from 455MW in the first quarter of 2019. However, the company expects shipments to drop to 340-400MW in the second quarter of 2020, lower than 616MW in the second quarter of 2019, 586MW in the third quarter of 2019, and 707MW in the fourth quarter of 2019.
SunPower's revenue in the first quarter of 2020 was US $ 449.2 million, a year-on-year increase, but the company expects it to decline to US $ 2.9-330 million in the second quarter of 2020. Due to GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) net loss of USD 1.4 million in the first quarter of 2020, SunPower had predicted a loss of USD 145-195 million by 2020 before covid-19, but now it is expected to lose 1 in the second quarter of 2020 alone- 120 million US dollars.
The expectation of "significant (covid-19 new crown pneumonia) impact" extends to SunPower's manufacturing business, which will complete the spin-off of newly listed company Maxeon Solar this year. Sun Power CEO Tom Werner said that the idle status of all photovoltaic plants around the world in the past few months is slowly recovering. He pointed out that the company ’s joint venture has "recovered full production" and said: "It is expected to resume in the next few weeks The previously suspended plant is expected to have sufficient inventory to meet demand in the second quarter. "
Facing the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, SunPower tried to emphasize its financial strength. Tom Werner mentioned the recent $ 1 billion funding agreement with Tech CU, a Silicon Valley financial institution. Chief Financial Officer Sial listed the entire deleveraging effort in the first quarter of 2020 and plans to save $ 100 million this year. Sial said that SunPower is "ready" for the future.
Vivint Solar Q2 is quite hit, Q3 is full of hope
The latest data confirms that Vivint Solar successfully installed a 56MW photovoltaic system in the first quarter of 2020, an increase of 23% year-on-year, but the forecast for the second quarter is as pessimistic as SunPower. According to the company's forecast, the installed capacity in the second quarter of this year may be in the range of 35-38MW, which will be the lowest level since 2017.
Vivint Solar predicts that installations may increase in the third quarter. "We have seen some signs of improvement in the market, but it is too early to predict." Vivint Solar's financial data for the first quarter of 2020 showed that Q1 revenue increased by 31% year-on-year to US $ 91.2 million, and gross profit increased by 37% to US $ 16.3 million. However, the company's net loss in 2019 was 423.3 million US dollars, which led to the overall loss in the first quarter of this year.
David Bywater, CEO of Vivint Solar, pointed out that it is necessary to find a response from the outbreak as soon as possible. April is a landmark starting point for actual data tracking. Vivint Solar will also use the knowledge learned during the crisis to work hard at Reduce costs in the future.
SolarEdge and Enphase dominated by the US market, Q1 shipments have increased significantly, and demand will decline in the coming months
SolarEdge reported revenue of US $ 431.2 million in the first quarter of 2020, setting a new historical record, compared with US $ 418.2 million in the previous quarter and US $ 271.9 million in the same period last year. The first quarter net profit of 42.2 million US dollars also far exceeded the 19 million US dollars in the same period last year, but a slight decline from the 52.8 million US dollars in the fourth quarter of last year.
SolarEdge CEO Zvi Lando said in a conference call on Wednesday that the impact of the new corona virus basically involves every country. According to statistics from Wood Mackenzie, SolarEdge accounted for about five points in the first three quarters of 2019 The third is the US household inverter market. However, photovoltaic installations in April fell by 33%. "Overall, the market sentiment in Europe and Australia is more positive than in the United States," Lando said. "However, the data for different installers in different countries varies greatly."
In the first quarter, SolarEdge exported 926MW in the US, 641MW in Europe, and 283MW in other regions.
Revenue indicators for the second quarter, the current photovoltaic products are 285 million US dollars to 315 million US dollars. In addition, other revenues also include products such as energy storage, batteries and UPS. The company ’s CEO finally stated that the plan to expand the Kokam plant to 2GW is continuing and will begin production in early 2020.
Enphase competitor Enphase recently announced a net profit of US $ 68.9 million in the first quarter and revenue of US $ 205.5 million, an increase of US $ 2.8 million from US $ 10.2 million in revenue in the same period last year. The Fremont, California-based inverter company's gross profit margin in the first quarter reached a record 39.2%, higher than the 37.1% in the fourth quarter of last year and 33.3% in the same period last year.
The company ’s CEO Badri Kothandaraman recently said that since the beginning of March, the spread of the global epidemic has put tremendous pressure on market demand, “We understand that some industry reports say that the United States 4 The number of residential installations in the month fell by 30% to 50%. "Some states, including New York and California, have experienced greater declines. Due to the limitations of the COVID-19 epidemic, products failed to complete the system's testing and certification in a timely manner. Enphase delayed the new energy storage home system that was originally scheduled to be released in March until June.