- Sunrun’s Q3/2023 solar energy deployments grew 1% YoY to 258.2 MW, and 131% in storage business
- Annual revenues declined while net loss widened due to goodwill impairment charge of $1.2 billion
- Company working on storage-first strategy to increase value streams and expand margins
- Annual guidance for solar energy systems lowered, but raised for storage capacity
Leading residential solar and storage company Sunrun has lowered its annual guidance for 2023 after reporting flat growth of 1% YoY for its Q3/2023 installations. Its net loss of -$1.47 billion, which expanded from -$155.5 million last year, was attributed to a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $1.2 billion.
It wrote down the goodwill from $4.3 billion to $3.1 billion due to the decline in the company’s stock price. The goodwill was a result of its October 2020 acquisition of Vivint Solar. During 9M/2023, the net loss was a total of -$2.16 billion, having gone up from -$521.7 million in 9M/2022.
Sunrun’s 258.2 MW solar energy capacity installations in the reporting quarter contributed to a cumulative networked solar energy capacity of 6.46 GW.
On the other hand, its storage business grew by 131% YoY with 175.6 MWh installed, and storage attachment rates of over 33%. The management shared that storage attachment rates on new sales for the company above 40% nationally, and in California the attachment rates are exceeding 85% of all new customers. The networked storage capacity grew by 1,124 MWh at the end of September 2023.
The company expanded its customer base by 33,806 new ones added during the reporting quarter with a 19% YoY increase, taking the aggregate to 903,270.
Management reported $563.18 million in Q3 revenues, a drop of 11% YoY from $632 million mainly due to the solar energy systems and product sales revenue declining 32% to $246.7 million. Customer agreements and incentives revenue rose 17%, on the other hand, to $316.5 million.
“We have sharpened our focus on cash generation and continue to execute a customer-first, sustainable growth strategy that does not require equity funding,” said Sunrun CEO Mary Powell. “We are fundamentally and rapidly transitioning to a storage-first company, to offer the most pro-consumer product, expand our margins, and lay the foundation for increased value streams from our growing fleet of networked storage systems.”
Philip Shen of Roth MKM said the storage-first strategy represents a greater point of differentiation for Sunrun, something that will work to its competitive advantage in the future.
Guidance
Sunrun has revised its 2023 guidance for solar energy capacity installed to reflect an annual growth of 2% to 5%, against the previous forecast of 10% to 15%. For Q4/2023, it expects to install between 220 MW and 245 MW solar capacity.
The management has forecast annual growth for storage capacity to range within 108% to 131%, as against the previous guidance of 71% to 78% YoY increase. In Q4/2023, the storage capacity deployment is expected to fall within 180 MWh to 200 MWh.
Shen believes the lower volumes guided by Sunrun for 2023 ‘represent just a pause’ and expects it to outperform in California in the coming quarters.
