ReneSola Power is aiming to build on its solid first quarter financial performance to reach a 2GW PV project pipeline by the end of the year, as it prepares to enter at least two new Europen markets.
The small-scale solar specialist posted an 8% year-on-year increase in revenue to US$22.8 million, which was driven by the sale of a 12.3MW portfolio of 20 solar farms in Hungary to investment company Obton and a 10MW portfolio of behind-the-meter projects in Utah that was sold to Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company.
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Gross margin for the quarter was above the company’s expectations at 29.9%, while adjusted EBITDA was up more than 250% sequentially to US$6.1 million. Q1 represented the firm’s fourth consecutive quarter of profitability.
In a letter to shareholders, ReneSola Power CEO Yumin Liu said the company’s differentiated business model has enabled it to navigate the current supply-constrained environment, with the firm “not impacted by the recent short-term material cost increases in the solar supply chain”.
ReneSola ended the quarter with a late-stage project pipeline of 1.3GW, up from 1GW at the end of last year, that is spread across eight markets: the US, Poland, the UK, Spain, China, France, Hungary and Germany.
The company formed a joint venture in January with asset management firm Eiffel Investment Group that will aim to develop up to 1GW of solar in Europe in the coming years. Liu revealed during a conference call with investors that ReneSola’s is considering expanding into two or three European countries.
Meanwhile, building on last year’s acquisition of selected assets from Nova Development Management, the company is evaluating opportunities in the solar-plus-storage and standalone energy storage segments in both the US and UK.
For full year 2021, ReneSola expects revenue in the range of US$90 million – US$100 million, up from last year’s US$73.9 million, and gross margin of over 25%.
Conference call transcript from Seeking Alpha.
