Aenert news. Energy Companies
The end of 2023 was marked by an unpleasant surprise for the photovoltaics industry, although the prerequisites for this had existed before. After the relative prosperity of the previous few years, a financial storm struck in 2023Q4, sending many companies into crisis. Something similar has happened in the last two years in the wind energy industry, which we have repeatedly mentioned in our reviews, but in this case completely different reasons for the crisis are cited.
According to BloombergNEF, the increase in new capacity for the production of solar panels has significantly exceeded demand for them. So in 2022, global manufacturing capacity reached almost 1.0M MW, while Solar installations was less than 0.25M MW. This led to the Solar Panel Price falling by more than half during 2023. As a result, three of the four companies we usually consider (Longi, First Solar, Jinko Solar, Canadian Solar) had losses or almost zero profit in 2023Q4, despite excellent operating performance. The only company on this list that was not affected by this trend was First Solar.
However, it should be noted that the financial statements of the Chinese company Longi have not yet been published; however, judging by press reports, one can hardly expect optimistic results. For example, Bloomberg indicates that Longi plans to cut up to 30% of its workforce, which was about 80,000 people in 2022. As of April, the company employed just over 60,000 people. Longi, in turn, rejected these reports, saying that the reduction would affect only 5% of its staff. In any case, these are serious changes that do not happen in a vacuum. Due to the lack of Longi reporting, we decided to later dedicate a special issue to this company, and here to focus on the activities of the remaining participants.
The American company First Solar was founded in 1999. It is one of the few to use thin film cadmium telluride (CadTel) technology to produce photovoltaic panels. The company notes the low cost and excellent scalability of this technology. The flagship 7 TR1 series thin film solar modules have a low guaranteed degradation rate (no more than 0.3% per year), excellent temperature coefficient, high quality and reliability. Cell Efficiency of this series ranges from 18.9 to 20.3%. First Solar delivered record results in 2023. Net sales were $3.3 billion in 2023 and $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter. Net income - $830.7 and $349 millions, respectively.
First Solar. Revenue, net income and share price
In total, a record 11.4GW were sold in 2023, net-bookings reached 28.3GW. Last year manufacturing amounted to 9.7 GW Series 6 and 2.4 GW Series 7. In 2024, First Solar plans to provide the following indicators:
- Net sales – $4.4-4.6 billion
- Volume sold – 15.6-16.3 GW
- Operating income - $1.5-1.6 billion
Chinese Jinko Solar is one of the undisputed industry leaders, specializing in the production of silicon solar panels. Over the past year, the company has been increasing its production. Annual shipments amounted to 83,562 MW (including 78,520 MW for solar modules and 5,043 MW for cells and wafers), an increase of 80.1% year-on-year. Total revenue was $16.72 billion, up 42.8% YoY. In 2023Q4, shipments totaled 27,862 MW (26,335 MW for solar modules and 1,528 MW for cells and wafers), up 23.3% QoQ and up 67.7% YoY.
Jinko Solar. Revenue, net income and share price
Annual net income attributable to common shareholders of JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd amounted to US$485.6 million, an increase of 4.56 times compared to the same period last year.
However, net income attributable to common shareholders of JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd in 2023Q4 was a symbolic $4.1 million, down 95.6% year-on-year. Obviously, the reason for this was the aforementioned price collapse. Despite this, in 2024 JinkoSolar plans to increase the supply of solar modules to the supply of modules up to 100.0 - 110.0 GW.
In contrast to the financial performance, the company's share price increased slightly compared to the previous quarter.
In fiscal year 2023, Canadian Solar carried out 30.7 GW Solar module shipments and 1.9 GWh Storage shipments. Annual Total revenue was $7.2 billion, including $1.7 billion in 2023Q4 (- 6% compared to the previous quarter and – 14% compared to the same quarter last year). For the first time in the last three years, a small quarterly loss of $3 million was recorded.
Canadian Solar. Revenue, net income and share price
As in the case of Jinko Solar, Canadian Solar is going to increase the supply of solar modules, immediately by 45% to 42-47 GW.
Judging by the data presented, the crisis of overproduction in solar energy primarily affected manufacturers of silicon panels and bypassed the main manufacturer of thin-film cells, First Solar. In addition, the mentioned companies are not going to slow down the pace of production, apparently confident that the high demand for solar panels will lead to an increase in prices for them in the short term.
By the Editorial Board
