Residential solar and storage installer Sunrun in the US met its solar energy capacity deployment guidance for Q3/2022 with 255.8 MW, growing 17% annually, as total revenue went up 44% from last year to $631.9 million, reflecting a growth of $193.1 million.
Had it not been for the hurricanes in Puerto Rico and Florida, Sunrun CEO Mary Powell said, 'volumes would have hit the top end of the range', in terms of installations. Recently, it bagged a contract to develop a 17 MW virtual power plant for Puerto Rico (see Sunrun To Build '1st' Virtual Power Plant For Puerto Rico).
"The current bureaucratic process from the Customs and Border Patrol continues to cause delays in the timely release of modules currently sitting at the ports, for us and many in the industry, following the implementation of the WRO and subsequent UFLPA regulations," added Powell. "We continue to source high-quality modules and are maintaining adequate supply for current needs, although we would like faster action to reduce import delays."
Philip Shen of Roth Capital Partners said the company has a 60-day supply of panel inventory as against the company target of 75 days of supply.
Revenue comprised $271.2 million from customer agreements and incentives revenue that improved 17% YoY, and $360.7 million or 74% increase in solar energy systems and product sales revenues. It reported total cost of revenue as having gone up 50% YoY to $521.3 million, while net income was $210.6 million having gone up from $24.1 million (see Sunrun's Q3/2021 Financial Results).
Its net subscriber value of $13,259 during the reporting quarter went up sequentially, exceeding guidance 'despite disruptions from hurricanes, and achieving a scale of over $5 billion in net earnings assets'.
At the end of September 2022, its subscriber base was 640,000 and its total customer base improved to 760,000 customers with the addition of around 35,800 new ones in Q3/2022, representing a total of 5.4 GW of networked solar energy capacity. It also serves an additional 10,000 households in multi-family housing projects that it sees increasing under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Sunrun now counts its total solar and battery system installations as having grown to over 47,000. Management said it is introducing additional battery suppliers.
"However, current battery supply conditions and longer install cycle times have resulted in lower battery attachment expectations in the near future. Today we are prioritizing allocation of batteries in key markets where they are needed the most for grid reliability concerns," shared Sunrun CFO Dannu Abajian.
Guidance
Sunrun expects its net subscriber value for Q4/2022 to increase sequentially and total value generated for full year 2022 to be over $1 billion. Management expects approximately 25% annual growth for installed solar energy capacity for 2022.
Shen sees the company positioned strongly in the near future. He explained, "As we head into 2023, we expect the company to deliver on (1) better volumes as lease/PPA wins share away from loans and (2) healthy/ improving margins with its ability to continue to increase price to offset rising interest rates."