ReneSola misses Q3 revenue estimate as pipeline maintains growth

Solar developer ReneSola Power reported Q3 revenue below its guidance due to delayed PV project sales but said its pipeline is growing faster than previously expected.
While the small-scale solar specialist saw its Q3 revenue jump 59% year-on-year to US$15.5 million, this was under the US$19 – 21 million range it had forecast for the quarter.
This was partly due to delays in closing project sales. Although it sold 6MW of plants in Poland and 5.5MW in the US state of Maine, one project in Spain that was on track to be offloaded in Q3 is now instead set to be sold this month, generating around US$2 million in revenue, while project sales in Pennsylvania were delayed for administrative reasons and should close either in Q4 or Q1 2022.
In a letter to shareholders, ReneSola management said they are not concerned by the revenue miss: “On a quarterly basis, sales can easily move between periods, skewing the results for a quarter but having no impact on the economics of our business. This was the case in the third quarter.”
Adjusted EBITDA was down 28% year-on-year to US$4.5 million while gross profit was at the high end of guidance at 39.2%. Q3 represented the sixth consecutive quarter of profitability for ReneSola.
The company said its pipeline growth is exceeding expectations, reaching 1.8GW at the end of September and on track to be near 2.2GW by the end of the year, up on the previously forecasted figure of 2GW. The current pipeline spans markets including Poland, the US, Spain, the UK and China.
ReneSola also said it is in the early stages of exploiting the many opportunities in energy storage and plans to build a “substantial pipeline” of solar-plus-storage and standalone projects in the coming quarters.
Since the Q2 results announcement in August, the company has downgraded its full-year revenue guidance from US$90 – 100 million to US$77 – 83 million.
During a conference call with investors following the Q3 results announcement, ReneSola management addressed a report published last week by Grizzly Research that claims the developer “has been vastly misrepresenting its project development pipeline”.
ReneSola CEO Yumin Liu said: “This report has no merit. Anyone that understands our business will see through the author’s misleading conclusions and false accusations.”