August 30, 2021
Fellow Shareholders,
Our company delivered solid second quarter results, with excellent bottom line profit and positive cash flow from operations. Our strategy to focus on project sales at the NTP stage is paying off: gross margin of 61.0% and net income of $7 million were well ahead of analyst forecasts. This is the most profitable quarter since we became a pure-play project developer in the third quarter of 2017. Adjusted EBITDA of $10 million represented an increase of 66% from the first quarter 2021 and 33% from the second quarter of 2020. Furthermore, our business model is also showing its strength. Second quarter marked our fifth consecutive quarter of profitability, with the bottom line well ahead of expectations despite sequentially lower revenue due to the timing of a project sale. Our growth was primarily driven by the strength in both Europe and the U.S. with strong demand for high-quality projects. (We expect to complete the sale of a 12MW project in Spain within the next month, and as such, we will recognize revenue from the sale in the third quarter of 2021.)
This excellent bottom-line performance was driven by our team's superb execution. First, we successfully closed the sale of a 38 MW portfolio of solar projects in Poland to Obton, a leading international solar investment company based in Denmark. The projects were sold at the NTP stage, and ReneSola Power will be responsible for EPC management, project financing, and the final delivery of the projects to Obton at the COD. Second, we completed the sale of a total of 5 MW projects in Maine, U.S., and recognized revenue in the quarter. Third, we grew our project pipeline from 1 GW in the beginning of 2021 to over 1.3 GW by the end of Q1 2021, and further expanded our pipeline to ~1.6 GW by the end of the second quarter of 2021. Fourth, we were awarded 29 solar utility projects with the capacity of 1 MW each and 1 small utility scale project with the capacity of 4 MW in Poland's electricity auction. These 30 projects are under Poland's Contract for Difference (CFD) regime and eligible for a 15-year guaranteed tariff. The projects are expected to be connected to the grid within the next two years.
In addition to strong bottom-line performance, we strengthened our financial position through debt reduction in the second quarter, retiring short-term debt of $11.8 million. As a result, we further improved our capital structure with a debt-to-assets ratio of 16%. Our balance sheet remains healthy with a large cash position of $286 million. We intend to use this cash to expand our solar project pipeline, further penetrate the solar-plus-storage market, for working capital, and for potential strategic M&A opportunities.
Further executing our growth plan, we recently signed a strategic partnership agreement with Emeren, a London, United Kingdom-based project developer specializing in the development of renewable energy power plants in Europe and other international markets. We will co-developground-mounted solar projects in Italy, with a pipeline of several transactions scheduled for 2021. As part of the agreement, ReneSola Power and Emeren intend to develop projects in a broad range of sizes across Italy, with a target of reaching 110 MW shovel-ready projects by 2022.
Our expanding pipeline of business activity indicates robust demand for project development, and we remain optimistic about our multi-year growth prospects. In the rest of this letter, we will describe in more detail our strong position today, and prospects for robust growth tomorrow.
Large and Growing Market Opportunity
The global solar power project development business is large and continues to grow. Industry market research estimates that by 2040, the share of renewables in the energy market will increase to around 30% and globally will become the single largest source of power generation. Europe continues to lead the way in terms of penetration of renewables. Renewable energy is expected to account for more than 50% of the European energy market by 2040. Europe, the U.S., and China are expected to be the three key markets driving the growth of renewables for many years in the future.
With our focus on Europe, the U.S., and China, we believe we are strategically positioned for growth. Europe, U.S., and China all have new carbon neutral emissions policy targets. In Europe, we have major development activities across Poland, Hungary, Spain, France, Germany, the U.K. and Italy. Beyond these countries, we are actively pursuing other emerging markets in Europe including the Czech Republic. In the U.S., our late-stage projects include community solar projects in Minnesota, Maine, and New York. Additionally, we have projects under development in Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and California, and we operate utility projects in North Carolina. In China, our key geographic focus will be in the Yangtze River Delta area, which has attractive electricity tariffs and is one of the major metropolitan areas designated to play a pivotal role in the country's future economic growth. As discussed previously, we intend to expand our IPP assets, where we are taking a disciplined approach and selectively adding high-quality and profitable projects to the pipeline. In addition, we have built a late-stage pipeline of 88 MW of DG projects located in various provinces across China, including Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, etc.
Our Project Development business benefits from an intense focus on small-scale projects in diverse jurisdictions with a high PPA/FIT price that generates attractive returns. As of June 30, 2021, our quality mid-to-late-stage pipeline was 1.6 GW, up from 1.3 GW in the first quarter of 2021. We continue to focus on profitable markets, including the U.S. and Europe, where we see tremendous growth opportunities with high-quality projects.
Importantly, we are committed to adding incremental projects in our core markets to reach 2 GW by the end of 2021. We are confident that we can achieve this target because our teams around the world are
(1) dedicated, skilled, and experienced; and (2) supported by the foundation of our strong balance sheet.
Pipeline Target | Capacity (MW) |
U.S. | 500.0 |
Poland | 400.0 |
Spain | 400.0 |
U.K. | 250.0 |
Germany and Italy | 200.0 |
China | 100.0 |
France | 100.0 |
Hungary | 50.0 |
Total | 2,000.0 |
Q2 2021 Financial Highlights: Solid Profitability and Fortress Balance Sheet
Q2'21 | Q1'21 | Q/Q | |
($ millions) | ($ millions) | Change | |
Revenue | $18.5 | $22.8 | -19% |
GAAP gross profit | $11.3 | $6.8 | +66% |
GAAP operating income | $7.3 | $4.1 | +79% |
Non-GAAP operating income | $8.8 | $4.6 | +90% |
EBITDA | $9.5 | $3.9 | +143% |
Adjusted EBITDA | $10.0 | $6.1 | +66% |
GAAP net income attributed to ReneSola Power | $7.0 | $0.8 | +798% |
Non-GAAP net income attributed to ReneSola Power | $7.5 | $3.0 | +149% |
- Revenue was $18.5 million, down from $22.8 million in the first quarter of 2021:
Q2'21 | % of Total | |
Revenue Breakdown | Revenue | |
Revenue | ||
((US$'000) | ||
Project Development | $12,805 | 69.1% |
IPP | $5,645 | 30.5% |
Others | $81 | 0.4% |
Total | $18,521 | 100.0% |
- "IPP" consists mainly of the sale of electricity in China. o "Other" refers to operations and maintenance.
- Gross margin was 61.0%, compared to 29.9% in the first quarter of 2021 and 28.4% in the second quarter of 2020;
- Net income attributed to ReneSola Power was $7.0 million, compared $0.8 million in the first quarter of 2021 and $3.1 million in the second quarter of 2020;
- Non-GAAP1 net income attributed to ReneSola Power was $7.5 million, compared to $3.0 million in the first quarter of 2021 and $3.6 million in the second quarter of 2020;
- Sold 38 MW of projects in Poland and 5 MW of solar projects in Maine;
Attractive Profit-Optimized Project Pipeline
850 MW | 170 MW | 1,598 MW | ||
Completed | In Operation | Mid-to-Late-stage Pipeline | ||
The development pipeline is strong, ending the second quarter with late-stage projects of approximately
1.6 GW, and about 15 MW under construction. We believe this pipeline portfolio is attractive due to its broad geographic diversification.
Late-stage projects include those with the legal right to develop based on definitive agreements, including those held by project Special Purpose Vehicles ("SPVs") or joint-venture project SPVs whose controlling power belongs to us.
The following table highlights our late-stage project pipeline by location:
Project | Mid-to-Late | Under |
Construction | ||
Location | stage (MW) | |
(MW) | ||
U.S. | 470.0 | -- |
Poland | 339.0 | 8.0 |
U.K. | 281.0 | -- |
Spain | 216.0 | -- |
France | 100.0 | -- |
China | 88.0 | 3.0 |
Germany | 62.0 | -- |
Hungary | 42.0 | 4.0 |
Total | 1,598.0 | 15.0 |
1 Reconciliations to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") financial measures from non-GAAP financial measures are presented below under "Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" in Appendix 4.
Strong Global Performance and Outlook
United States
Our quality mid-to-late-stage projects total 470 MW, of which 82MW are community solar projects in Minnesota, Maine, and New York. Additionally, we have projects under development in Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois and California. Meanwhile, we operate 24.1 MW of utility projects in North Carolina.
US: Late-stage | Location | Capacity | Project Type | Status | Expected | Business Model |
Pipeline | (MW) | COD | ||||
MN-VOS-2 | MN | 10.0 | Community Solar | Under | 2021/2022 | Project Development |
Development | ||||||
New York | NY | 50.0 | Community Solar | Under | 2021/2022 | Project Development |
Development | ||||||
Florida | FL | 100.0 | Utility Scale | Under | 2022/2023 | Project Development |
Development | ||||||
Maine | ME | 22.0 | DG & Community | Under | 2021/2022 | Project Development |
Solar | Development | |||||
Welcome Solar | PA | 70.0 | Utility Scale | NTP in Q3/Q4 | 2021/2022 | Project Development |
Portfolio | ||||||
DG/Small-scale | PPA signed, | |||||
California | CA | 28.0 | Utility/ Battery | mid-stage | 2022/2023 | Project Development |
Storage | development | |||||
Illinois | IL | 50.0 | Utility Scale | Under | 2023/2024 | Project Development |
Development | ||||||
California | CA | 140.0 | Large-scale | PPA | 2024/2025 | Project Development |
PV/storage | negotiations | |||||
Total | 470.0 | |||||
Poland
Business momentum accelerated in recent months. As of June 30, 2021, we had ~339 MW of projects in our development pipeline.
Poland: Mid-to- | Capacity | Expected | ||||
Late-stage | Project | Project Type | Status | Business Model | ||
(MW) | COD | |||||
Pipeline | ||||||
Auction 2019 Dec | 8 individual projects, | 8.0 | Ground- | Under | 2021 | Build-Transfer |
1MW each | mounted | Development | ||||
Auction 2020 Q4 | 38 individual projects, | 38.0 | Ground- | Under | 2021/2022 | Build-Transfer |
1MW each | mounted | Development | ||||
Auction 2021 Q3 | 40 individual projects, | 33.0 | Ground- | Under | 2022/2023 | Build-Transfer |
1MW each | mounted | Development | ||||
Auction 2022 | Include both small- | ~260.0 | Ground- | Under | 2023/2024 | Build-Transfer |
and-large-scale projects | mounted | Development | ||||
Total | ~339.0 |
Hungary
In Hungary, we invest in small-scale DG projects. Our late-stage pipeline has a total capacity to 42 MW. These projects are under development.
Hungary: Late-stage | Location | Capacity | Project Type | Status | Expected COD | Business Model |
Pipeline | (MW) | |||||
Portfolio with PPAs | Hungary | 8.0 | Ground- | Ready-to-Build | 2021/2022 | Build-Transfer |
mounted | ||||||
Portfolio without | Hungary | 34.0 | Ground- | Under | 2021/2022 | Build-Transfer |
PPAs | mounted | Development | ||||
Total | 42.0 |
France
In France, we have a project pipeline of 100 MW, all of which are ground-mounted projects.
France: Late-stage | Location | Capacity (MW) Project Type | Status | Expected COD Business Model | ||
Pipeline | ||||||
Project Portfolios | France | 70.0 | Ground | Under | 2021/2022 | Project Development |
mounted | Development | |||||
Project Portfolios | France | 30.0 | Ground | Under | 2021/2022 | Project Development |
mounted | Development | |||||
Total | 100.0 | |||||
Spain
We have a late-stage pipeline of 216 MW of ground-mounted projects located in various regions across Spain.
Spain: Late-stage | Location | Capacity | Project Type | Status | Expected | Business Model | |
Pipeline | (MW) | COD | |||||
Caravaca | Murcia | 6.0 | Ground-mounted | Under Development | 2021 | Project Development | |
Altajero | Murcia | 6.0 | Ground-mounted | Under Development | 2022 | Project Development | |
Abanilla | Alicante | 4.0 | Ground-mounted | Under Development | 2022 | Project Development | |
Pedrera | Alicante | 10.0 | Ground-mounted | Under Development | 2022 | Project Development | |
Serrata | Alicante | 10.0 | Ground-mounted | Under Development | 2022 | Project Development | |
Project Portfolio | Spain | 180.0 | Ground-mounted | Under Development | 2023/2024 | Project Development | |
Total | 216.0 |
Germany
We have secured a late-stage pipeline of 62 MW of ground-mounted projects now under development.
Project Pipeline | Capacity | Project Type | Status | Expected COD | Business Model |
(MW) | |||||
Project Portfolios - | 12.0 | Ground-mounted | Under Development | 2022 | Build-Transfer |
Kentzlin | |||||
Project Portfolios - | 50.0 | Ground-mounted | Under Development | 2023 | Build-Transfer |
Vodasun | |||||
Total | 62.0 |
U.K.
We have a late-stage pipeline of 281 MW of ground-mounted projects under development.
Project Pipeline | Capacity | Project Type | Status | Expected COD | Business Model |
(MW) | |||||
UK- Novergy | 212.0 | Solar onlyUnder Development | 2022/2023 | Project Development | |
UK- Innova | 69.0 | Solar-plus-storageUnder Development | 2021/2022 | Project Development | |
Total | 281.0 |
China
We have a late-stage pipeline of 88 MW of DG projects located in various provinces across China.
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ReneSola Ltd. published this content on 30 August 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 31 August 2021 00:01:03 UTC.