Canadian Solar said its revenues in the first quarter of 2024 fell 22 percent quarter-over-quarter and 22 percent year-on-year to $1.3 billion.
The sequential decrease primarily reflects a decline in solar module shipment volume, a decline in module average selling price (ASP), partially offset by higher battery energy storage solutions sales.
Canadian Solar said total module shipments recognized as revenues in the first quarter of 2024 were 6.3 GW, up 4 percent year-over-year. Of the total, 236 MW were shipped to the company’s own utility-scale solar power projects.
Recurrent Energy Segment held a leading position with a total solar development pipeline of 26 GWp and a battery energy storage development pipeline of 56 GWh.
Recurrent Energy’s total solar project development pipeline was 26.3 GWp, including 1.5 GWp under construction, 5.0 GWp of backlog, and 19.8 GWp of projects in advanced and early-stage pipelines.
Recurrent Energy’s total battery energy storage project development pipeline was 55.9 GWh, including 4.3 GWh under construction and in backlog, and 51.6 GWh of projects in advanced and early-stage pipelines.
CSI Solar shipped 6.3 GW of solar modules and solar system kits to more than 70 countries in the first quarter of 2024. For the first quarter of 2024, the top five markets ranked by shipments were China, the U.S., Pakistan, Brazil, and Spain.
e-STORAGE, CSI Solar’s battery energy storage platform, had a total project turnkey pipeline of around 56 GWh, which includes both contracted and in-construction projects, as well as projects at different stages of the negotiation process. In addition, e-STORAGE had approximately 3.1 GWh of operating battery energy storage projects contracted. e-STORAGE’s contracted backlog, including contracted long-term service agreements, was $2.5 billion.
Canadian Solar’s gross profit in the first quarter of 2024 was $253 million, up 18 percent qoq and down 21 percent yoy. Gross margin in the first quarter of 2024 was 19.0 percent, compared to 12.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023 and 18.7 percent in the first quarter of 2023. The gross margin sequential increase was primarily caused by lower manufacturing costs, partially offset by lower module ASPs.
Canadian Solar said operating expenses in the first quarter of 2024 were $204 million, compared to $213 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 and $172 million in the first quarter of 2023.
Canadian Solar expects revenue to be in the range of $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion for the second quarter of 2024.
Total module shipments recognized as revenues by CSI Solar are expected to be in the range of 7.5 GW to 8.0 GW, including approximately 100 MW to the Company’s own projects. Total battery energy storage shipments by CSI Solar in the second quarter of 2024 are expected to be between 1.4 GWh to 1.6 GWh, including about 800 MWh to the Company’s own projects.
For the full year of 2024, the company expects total module shipments to be in the range of 35 GW to 40 GW and CSI Solar’s total battery energy storage shipments in the range of 6.0 GWh to 6.5 GWh, including approximately 2 GW and 2.5 GWh respectively to the Company’s own projects. The company’s total revenue is expected to be in the range of $7.3 billion to $8.3 billion.