Dive Brief:
- SolarCity's total Q2 2014 revenue was up 62% over Q2 2013 to $61.3 million, but Q2 2014 total expenses were $97.2 million, up 123% from Q2 2013’s $43.6 million, which resulted in a Q2 2014 operational loss of $74.3 million, down from the Q2 2013 loss of $35.5 million.
- SolarCity added 30,000 new customers in Q2 2014, up 218% over Q2 2013, it deployed 107 megawatts, up 102% over Q2 2013, and booked 218 megawatts in Q2 2014, up 216% over Q2 2013, all demonstrating why SolarCity's third securitization offer that raised $201 million was rated BBB+ by S&P.
- Q2 2014 was "an amazing quarter" that ended with over "$3.3 billion of customer payments coming to us in the next twenty years” after the $800 million added in Q2 2014, according to SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive. These achievements explain the company's losses because SolarCity is moving to “capture the market and grow as fast as we can."
Dive Insight:
Rive promised “a big announcement” on solar loans and said the Silevo solar module “gigawatt manufacturing site” in New York is being selected.
SolarCity installed 1.2 megawatts of rooftop solar per day in Q2 2014, thanks to more crew productivity produced by better scheduling and incentives as well as improved Zep mounting hardware that cut system installation time to less than a day.
Installation now costs $2.29 per watt, including panels, inverters, Zep mounting hardware, the balance of system, labor, call centers, processing and engineering, vehicles and warehouses and SolarCity's target installation cost is now $1.90 per watt. Acquisition cost is now $0.48 per watt and from contract signing to interconnection now takes 60 days.
