First Solar shipped 5.5 GW of CdTe thin film modules in 2020

• ' Solar Module Super League' (SMSL) participant Initial Solar has reported full-year PV module shipments of 5.5 GW in 2020, generating net sales of US$ 2.7 billion.

The SMSL participant reported 4th quarter 2020 profits of US$ 609.2 million, contrasted to US$ 927.6 million in the previous quarter.

First Solar had actually formerly said that it expected net sales to be in between US$ 540 million and also US$ 790 million in Q4, which accounted for possible hold-ups in the sale of its Sunlight Streams 2 project and also module earnings acknowledgment timing, which was without a doubt postponed till February 2021.

Balance sheet cash money as well as money equivalents stood at US$ 1.79 billion at the year's end, down 21%, year-on-year, mainly to capital investment related to its change to Collection 6 module production.

Guidance

First Solar stated that it expected 2021 overall income to be in the series of US$ 2.85 billion to US$ 3 billion.

Nonetheless, First Solar is anticipated to get around US$ 140 million from the closing of the sale of its O&M service in the very first fifty percent of the year.

The firm has actually additionally currently booked 7.2 GW of PV module shipments in 2021 with strategies to get to 8.7 GW of nameplate ability by the end of the year.

The company achieved around 10% manufacturing expense decreases in 2020 and also comparable degrees intended in 2021. Nevertheless, silicon-based PV suppliers are being affected from polysilicon ability constraints that are driving ASPs higher in 2021, paired to restrictions in solar glass capacity as well as consequently ASPs that are also impacting competing makers cost reduction as well as gross margins.