Last week Canadian Solar released its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2019 indicating another great year for solar panel shipments.
The company racked up 8.6 GW of module shipments in 2019, compared 6.6 GW in 2018 and above guidance of 8.4 GW to 8.5 GW. For the final quarter of last year, total module shipments amounted to 2.5 GW, compared to 2.4 GW in the third quarter of 2019 and again slightly higher than fourth quarter 2019 guidance of 2.3 GW to 2.4 GW.
Net revenue for the full year was USD $3.20 billion, compared to $3.74 billion in 2018; but Chairman and CEO Dr. Shawn Qu was happy with the results.
“The strategic decisions we made in R&D and production capacity helped us achieve one of the industry’s highest margins, as we build upon our strong brand and maintain pricing power,” stated Dr. Qu.
Canadian Solar And COVID-19
We recently mentioned solar manufacturers JinkoSolar and SMA are still confident of a busy year ahead – and Canadian Solar is no different. It’s expecting total module shipments to be in the range of approximately 10 GW to 12 GW during 2020, with total revenue to be in the range of $3.4 billion to $3.9 billion. However, the company notes its estimates are subject to uncertainty with respect to issues including the impact of COVID-19.
“We believe Canadian Solar’s proven 19-year track record and the robust, conservative nature of our long-term strategy will allow the Company to emerge stronger from the current period of uncertainty,” said Dr. Qu.
The full report on Canadian Solar’s fourth quarter and full year 2019 results can be viewed here.
About The “Canadian” Bit
Canadian Solar panels have been commonly used in home PV installations in Australia and the company is currently listed on SQ’s trusted brands chart. However, Australians buying these solar panels based on the “Canadian” reference may be a little disappointed.
The company has 17 manufacturing facilities spread across Asia and the Americas – and the panels available in Australia are manufactured in China. This isn’t a bad thing – just a thing.
The firm has certainly stood the test of time, stating it has shipped more than 38GW of solar panels during its 19-year history.
In other relatively recent news from the company, in March it announced the launch of its HiKu monocrystalline solar panel range for the Australian market in 2020; available in capacities up to 450 watts. We currently have the 350W – 370W panels listed on the SQ solar panel comparison table, which offer efficiencies of 18.92% to 20% and work out to an estimated 75c per watt retail including GST – which would be a pretty good price for a panel of this nature.
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