US-based solar power developer Emeren has published its financial results for the third quarter of the year, posting a revenue of US$13.9 million, a 59% fall from the previous quarter.
The company’s latest revenues are more in line with its Q1 results, in which it posted revenues of US$12.9 million, with its Q2 revenues of US$33.8 million something of an anomaly. Between Q2 and Q3 of this year, Emeren also posted declines in gross profit of 55% and earnings before inflation, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 177%.
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The company’s figures are also largely worse than in the third quarter of 2022, with revenue and EBITDA falling by 42% and 402% respectively, from one year to the next.
Much of these struggles can be attributed to the fact that, by its own admission, Emeren is in something of a transitional period, with a considerable pipeline of projects under construction, that have not yet come into commercial operation. The company’s results note that power production accounted for 67% of its revenue in the third quarter of this year, highlighting the importance of operation to the company’s sales, and as of the end of September 2023, Emeren’s total project pipeline reached 7.7GW of solar capacity.
Perhaps most notably, the company has 1.3GW of new capacity in the “advanced stage” of development in the US alone, more than any other country, and close to the 1.5GW of capacity in a similar stage in Europe. Considering the scale of the US solar sector, and the fact that European companies are increasingly interested in acquiring US projects, or signing power purchase agreements (PPAs) with solar facilities in the US, should Emeren bring this capacity to commercial operation, its financial fortunes could significantly improve.
“Our revenue was below our guidance mainly due to timing of the final government approval for a 5 MW solar NTP project portfolio in Hungary,” wrote CEO Yumin Liu and FCO Ke Chen in a letter addressed to shareholders, providing another example of an advanced-stage development that has not yet reached commercial operation.
“We expected to receive approval based on the government’s official processing timeline before mid-August. Had we received approval within their standard timeline, our revenue would have been near the low end of our guidance range,” added the Emeren executives.
