Who says solar is having a tough year — solar bell weather SunPower announced sunny third quarter earnings today, with boosted revenues and profits beating analysts expectations. SunPower reported $550.6 million in revenues for the third quarter that ended October 3, 2010, up from the $465.4 million that the company reported in the third quarter of 2009, and recorded a net income of $20.1 million for the recent quarter, up slightly from $19.5 million the same period the year before.
That’s quite a better picture than the company gave earlier this year when it dropped a double whammy of a lower-than-expected earnings guidance for 2010 and a restating of its earnings for 2008 and the first three quarters of 2009. SunPower’s stock ticked up slightly on the good earnings news before closing at $14.11.
The solar industry in 2011 is expected to still be hot, but likely won’t grow as fast as in previous years, analysts have predicted. Researchers at iSuppli estimate that 20.2 gigawatts of solar panel-based systems will be installed in 2011, up about 42 percent from the anticipated 14.2 gigawatts in 2010. The growth would be small compared with the 97 percent hike from 7.2 gigawatts 2009 to 2010 because of cuts in government subsidies in key markets such as Germany and Italy and financial turmoil in countries such as Greece and Spain.
Germany has been the savior for solar energy equipment makers and project developers during 2009, when recession choked off project financing, spurred contract re-negotiations and prompted furloughs and layoffs during the first half of the year. But solar project construction picked up later last year as developers rushed to complete projects ahead of an anticipated cutback in the country’s feed-in tariff. The country passed a new set of feed-in tariffs that took effect last month.
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