The Arizona-based company on Tuesday posted earnings per share of $3.91 in 2014 on $3.4 billion in sales, compared to $3.70 per share on approximately $3.3 billion in net sales in 2013.
First Solar shipped 1.5 GW of its cadmium-telluride-based thin-film panels in 2014 and booked 2.5 GW of supply deals for third-party and self-developed projects.
"We closed 2014 with strong execution across all fronts," said Jim Hughes, chief executive of First Solar, in a statement. "We have exceeded the earnings per share, operating cash flow and bookings targets that we set at our 2014 Analyst Day. In addition we have announced another new record cell efficiency. With our strong bookings we are well positioned as we enter 2015 and remain focused on executing to our strategy."
First Solar boosted the average sunlight-conversion efficiency of its panels by 100 basis points to 14.4% in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared to the prior-year fourth quarter. Its best lines, which operated at 14.8% in the fourth quarter, already are at 15.8% this month, said Hughes during a conference call with analysts.
The company forecast sales of $550 to $650 million in this years first quarter and a loss of $0.35 to $0.35 per share. First Solar attributed the declines to the late 2014 completions of the 550 MW Desert Sunlight and Topaz projects in California, which currently are the worlds largest operating solar power plants, as well as the retention of projects on balance sheet in relation to the announced plan to pursue a joint yieldco vehicle with SunPower.
First Solar declined to provide full-year financial guidance, pending full disclosure of the details of the joint venture.
Popular content
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Share
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.