The largest US PV installer, SolarCity, reported continued installation and revenue increase in the second quarter of 2015, backed by increasing pre-booked customers.
SolarCity reported second quarter 2015 installations of 189MW, compared to 153MW in the seasonally weak first quarter, up 77% year-on-year. The company added 44,900 customers in the quarter.
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Residential installations totalled 168MW in the second quarter, up 86% year-on-year.
On a regional basis, installations in California continue to dominate and grew 97% year-on-year. However, its East Coast installations were said to have accounted for almost one-third of installations in the quarter, increasing 187% year-on-year.
California grew 97% Y/Y and East Coast states not only rebounded from the seasonally slower winter months in Q1 2015 but grew as a whole 187% Y/Y to almost one-third of our installations in the quarter.
The company reached cumulative installations of 1,418MW at the end of the second quarter, an increase of 86% year-on-year. Cumulative customer levels reached 262,495 at the end of quarter, an increase of 86% year-on-year. This compares to 218,000 cumulative customers achieved at the end of the first quarter.
In measuring future growth and meeting its latest guidance of MW installed of 920MW to 1GW of installs in 2015, SolarCity reported it booked 395MW in the second quarter, compared to 237MW of new installations in the prior quarter.
The company noted that it had shifted from deployed systems as its guidance metric to installed systems, due to utilities being unable to keep up with install approvals. However, the install level is lower than its 1GW previously deployed metric guidance.
The company noted that it expect installs in the third quarter to reach a record 260MW, representing growth of 89% year-on-year.
