Sunrun deployments down 7%, but revenue up 36%

May 10, 2018John Weaver

Sunrun is having a financial moment in the sun, and with potentially large markets in Florida and Illinois now opening to them, growth should be expected. There were a host of slower numbers, but in light of the seemingly healthy growth of money available to the company, the market has reacted fondly to the quarterly report.

In Sunrun’s quarterly financial results, total revenue increased from $105 million to $144 million over Q1 2017 – and increase of $39 million. In kind, total operating expenses increased from $153 million to $201 million – outpacing revenue growth by $9 million.

During this quarter of significant revenue growth, deployment volume fell year-over-year by 7%, from 72.8 MW to 67.6 MW. Total systems deployed also fell – from 9,300 to 8,000.

However, this may be a temporary lull. Sunrun expects to to report 88 MW installed in the second quarter, which would be 16% growth over a year ago, and 24% growth over this most recent quarter. The company also reiterated that it expects 15% annual deployment volume growth, with cash generation even higher.

For the quarter, Sunrun fell behind Tesla’s 76 MW deployed, but stayed strongly ahead of Vivint’s 40 MW.

The company leased 59 MW of solar installations, also down from 67 MW in the first quarter of 2017. This volume, about 87% of all installations, is just below to 2017’s percentage of 89% and matches the 2016 value.

The strongest argument that Sunrun’s third-party model makes to investors that the company estimates that it is creating approximately $9,200 in value for these investors every time it installs a solar power system. According to the company, the value created per customer is increasing regularly.

Per Sunrun’s earnings call:

Strong performance of residential solar assets continues to deepen investor conviction in their high quality, lowering the spreads to U.S. Treasuries that capital providers require. As such, overall capital costs are flat to improving slightly.

This aligns with Dividend Finance getting the solar industry’s first “AA” rating on a solar loan securitization.

The stock is trading very strongly over yesterday’s closing price as of 9.42 AM this morning. Sunrun’s share price hasn’t been this high since shortly after the company went public in late 2015.