US solar tracker manufacturer Array Technologies has posted US$231 million in revenues and adjusted EBITDA of US$46.7 million in its Q3 2024 financial results.
The figures represent a decline from the previous quarter, when revenues were US$255.8 million and EBITDA was US$55.4 million, but Array said it is forecasting “solid business momentum” going into the rest of 2024 and 2025.
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In its earnings call, CEO Kevin Hostetler said: “While this quarter’s orders and the number of projects awarded in the market were a bit muted, given the election uncertainty and other market factors, the overall momentum of the business remains strong.”
PV Tech looked into the uncertainty that stems from the election in detail earlier this week. Other factors include the ongoing antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) tariff investigation, which has introduced some uncertainty over project financing to the US market; Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) tax credits, which are are still being worked through; and interconnection delays that continue to pose a barrier to US project development.
Despite these uncertainties, Array predicts that 2025 will see “incremental improvements” to the market and its own fortunes. Hostetler said: “At quarter end, our overall domestic pipeline of opportunities was over three-times larger than the end of Q3 2023.”
In its earnings presentation, Array Technologies said that 2025 will bring clarity over the AD/CVD tariffs, bipartisan political support for utility-scale solar, despite the change in government, and a more favourable financing environment. Indeed, a report from Mercom capital partners last month showed that “significant uncertainties” cut around US$7 billion from corporate financing in the solar sector in Q3 2024.
Project trends and 45X
Hostetler was optimistic about the company’s future, noting: “Our orderbook remains healthy at US$2 billion, with over 20% of our global orderbook now representing orders of OmniTrack, which demonstrates the rapid expansion of solar projects utilising land with diverse terrain.
“Additionally, a significant portion of orders in our domestic orderbook include customers evaluating domestic content, and we remain confident in our ability to provide 100% domestic trackers.”
The domestic content tax bonus adds a 10% boost to the IRA’s production tax credit (PTC) if 40% of a project consists of US-made components. These include modules and their constituent parts, as well as trackers, racking, inverters and other system components.
Array Technologies broke ground on a tracker manufacturing facility in New Mexico in April this year. It has supply deals in place with US steel producers to support its domestic operations and eligibility for the domestic content bonus.
In addition to the domestic content bonus, Array Technologies said that use of the IRA’s 45X Manufacturing Credit drove its gross margin up to 35.4% from 26% in Q3 2023. It received the credits for producing torque tubes and structural fasteners for its tracker products.
For the full year 2024, Array Technologies expects revenues in the range of US$900 million to US$920 million and adjusted EBITDA between US$170 million and US$180 million. These figures were adjusted down based on its Q3 results.
