Bloom Energy Corp (BE) 2020 Q4 法說會逐字稿

完整原文

使用警語:中文譯文來源為 Google 翻譯,僅供參考,實際內容請以英文原文為主

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Bloom Energy Fourth Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

    女士們,先生們,感謝你們的支持,歡迎來到 Bloom Energy 2020 年第四季度收益電話會議。 (操作員說明)請注意,今天的會議正在錄製中。 (操作員說明)

  • I would now like to hand the conference over to Suzanne Schmidt with Investor Relations. Thank you. Please go ahead.

    我現在想將會議交給投資者關係部的 Suzanne Schmidt。謝謝你。請繼續。

  • Suzanne Schmidt - IR Officer

    Suzanne Schmidt - IR Officer

  • Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on Bloom Energy's Fourth Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. To supplement this conference call, we have filed our Q4 2020 earnings press release with the SEC and have posted it along with supplemental financial information that we will periodically reference throughout this call to our Investor Relations website.

    謝謝你,運營商。大家下午好,感謝您加入我們的 Bloom Energy 2020 年第四季度收益電話會議。為了補充本次電話會議,我們已向美國證券交易委員會提交了 2020 年第四季度收益新聞稿,並將其與補充財務信息一起發布,我們將在本次電話會議期間定期參考我們的投資者關係網站。

  • The matters we will be discussing today include forward-looking statements regarding future events and the future financial performance of the company. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that we discuss in detail in our documents filed with the SEC, specifically the most recent reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, which identify important risk factors, including those related to the COVID-19 pandemic that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These include statements about the effects of COVID-19 on the company's business results, financial position, liquidity and outlook. We assume no obligation to revise any forward-looking statements made on today's call.

    我們今天要討論的事項包括有關未來事件和公司未來財務業績的前瞻性陳述。這些聲明受我們在提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中詳細討論的風險和不確定性的影響,特別是關於 10-K 和 10-Q 表格的最新報告,這些報告確定了重要的風險因素,包括與 COVID-19 相關的風險因素可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述中包含的結果存在重大差異的大流行病。其中包括有關 COVID-19 對公司業務成果、財務狀況、流動性和前景的影響的聲明。我們沒有義務修改在今天的電話會議上做出的任何前瞻性陳述。

  • During this call and in our Q4 2020 earnings press release, we refer to GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles and are in addition to, and not a substitute for or superior, to measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation between the GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures is included in our Q4 2020 earnings press release.

    在本次電話會議和我們的 2020 年第四季度收益新聞稿中,我們提到了 GAAP 和非 GAAP 財務指標。這些非 GAAP 財務指標不是根據美國公認會計原則編制的,是對根據 GAAP 編制的財務業績指標的補充,而不是替代或優於這些指標。我們的 2020 年第四季度收益新聞稿中包含 GAAP 和非 GAAP 財務指標之間的對賬。

  • Joining me on the call today are KR Sridhar, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Greg Cameron, Chief Financial Officer. KR and Greg will review the operating and financial highlights of the quarter, and then we will take questions. I would also like to note that we are all dialed into this call remotely, so we apologize in advance for any audio issues that may occur.

    今天和我一起參加電話會議的是創始人、董事長兼首席執行官 KR Sridhar;和首席財務官 Greg Cameron。 KR 和 Greg 將回顧本季度的運營和財務亮點,然後我們將回答問題。我還想指出,我們都是遠程撥入此電話的,因此對於可能出現的任何音頻問題,我們提前表示歉意。

  • I will now turn the call over to KR.

    我現在將把電話轉給 KR。

  • K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

    K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

  • Good day, and welcome to Bloom Energy's Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2020 Earnings Call. Thank you for joining us.

    美好的一天,歡迎來到 Bloom Energy 的第四季度和 2020 財年收益電話會議。感謝您加入我們。

  • I'm delighted to report that because of our efforts in 2020, Bloom Energy is financially strong and even more resilient and transformative than ever before. 2020 was our best year yet on so many dimensions.

    我很高興地報告,由於我們在 2020 年的努力,Bloom Energy 的財務實力雄厚,甚至比以往任何時候都更具彈性和變革性。 2020 年是我們迄今為止在許多方面表現最好的一年。

  • Here are a few highlights. Our fourth quarter and full year revenue are a company record. Our annual non-GAAP gross margin is the highest to date. We improved our financial health by retiring the high interest debt that was coming due. We added 4 exceptional leaders to our management team with proven records of operational excellence. Our teams in supply chain, manufacturing, installation and service navigated through the myriad of local and global obstacle to safely manufacture, accept and service record numbers of Bloom servers, a clear demonstration of dedication and commitment. The announced applications and partnerships that leverage our platform in innovative ways. We are advancing the technology for our hydrogen fuel cells and electrolyzers, biogas power generation and carbon capture. We also forged a partnership to deploy our fuel cells on ship.

    這裡有一些亮點。我們的第四季度和全年收入都創下了公司記錄。我們的年度非 GAAP 毛利率是迄今為止最高的。我們通過償還即將到期的高息債務改善了我們的財務狀況。我們為我們的管理團隊增加了 4 位卓越的領導者,他們擁有卓越運營的可靠記錄。我們在供應鏈、製造、安裝和服務方面的團隊克服了無數本地和全球障礙,安全地製造、接受和服務了創紀錄數量的 Bloom 服務器,這清楚地證明了我們的奉獻精神和承諾。已宣布的應用程序和合作夥伴關係以創新方式利用我們的平台。我們正在推進氫燃料電池和電解槽、沼氣發電和碳捕獲技術。我們還建立了合作夥伴關係,在船上部署我們的燃料電池。

  • The Bloom team's community spirit and contributions are also a highlight of 2020. We refurbished ventilators, provided emergency clean power to pop-up hospitals and hurricane victims and began co-hosting a COVID testing lab for local companies, schools and underserved community members. We made deliberate and tough decisions to ensure that we emerge out of the crisis as a stronger company and conserve our cash until we had strengthened our balance sheet.

    Bloom 團隊的社區精神和貢獻也是 2020 年的一大亮點。我們翻新了呼吸機,為臨時醫院和颶風受害者提供緊急清潔電力,並開始為當地公司、學校和服務不足的社區成員共同主辦 COVID 測試實驗室。我們做出了深思熟慮和艱難的決定,以確保我們作為一家更強大的公司擺脫危機,並在我們加強資產負債表之前保留我們的現金。

  • We delayed our manufacturing facility expansion in early 2020. We focused instead on increasing the production and reducing the cost of our current product in existing factories. We were able to sell out our manufacturing capacity for 2021 based on sales in our current geographies. This enabled us to defer market expansion-related expenses and further manage our cash position. We made sure that we kept our innovation team well funded.

    我們在 2020 年初推遲了製造工廠的擴張。我們的重點是增加現有工廠的產量並降低現有產品的成本。根據我們當前地區的銷售額,我們能夠售罄 2021 年的製造能力。這使我們能夠推遲與市場擴張相關的費用,並進一步管理我們的現金狀況。我們確保為我們的創新團隊提供充足的資金。

  • Since securing financing, we have initiated a plan to double our manufacturing output by the end of 2021. The new facility is architected and equipped to build our Gen 7.5 product. We are also making the requisite investment to expand to new states and countries. Our product, install and service cost reduction now enable us to offer our resiliency solutions in states where commercial and industrial customers pay $0.09 per kilowatt hour or more for power. At this price point, we are competitively positioned in a majority of the 50 states according to the U.S. Department of Energy data. In 2021, we will enter new states by securing orders with both existing and new customers.

    自獲得融資以來,我們已經啟動了一項計劃,到 2021 年底將我們的製造產量翻一番。新工廠的設計和裝備是為了製造我們的 Gen 7.5 產品。我們還在進行必要的投資以擴展到新的州和國家。我們的產品、安裝和服務成本降低現在使我們能夠在商業和工業客戶為每千瓦時支付 0.09 美元或更多電力的州提供我們的彈性解決方案。根據美國能源部的數據,在這個價位上,我們在 50 個州中的大多數州都具有競爭力。 2021 年,我們將通過獲得現有和新客戶的訂單進入新的狀態。

  • Outside the U.S., Bloom's Head of International Growth, Azeez Mohammed, is actively building a strong team to expand our global business. The maritime market is also a large growth opportunity for Bloom as we discussed during our Investor Day. I'm happy to report that Tim Schweikert, who was the President and CEO of General Electric Marine Solutions, has joined Bloom as a special adviser. Our collaboration with Samsung Heavy Industries is making good progress. With all these positive developments, we expect robust backlog growth in 2021.

    在美國以外,Bloom 的國際發展主管 Azeez Mohammed 正在積極打造一支強大的團隊來拓展我們的全球業務。正如我們在投資者日討論的那樣,海運市場對 Bloom 來說也是一個巨大的增長機會。我很高興地報告,通用電氣海事解決方案總裁兼首席執行官 Tim Schweikert 已作為特別顧問加入 Bloom。我們與三星重工的合作進展順利。有了所有這些積極的發展,我們預計 2021 年積壓訂單將強勁增長。

  • That expectation of robust backlog growth is strengthened by several policy and market tailwinds, both nationally and globally. In the U.S., President Biden's energy and climate agenda calls for the extension of existing clean energy incentives like the federal investment tax credit, increased subsidies for carbon capture and investments in blue and green hydrogen. The President has pledged to deploy billions of dollars to improve infrastructure and improve climate resilience. Bloom is ideally suited to provide the reliable power and clean energy solutions that the administration is looking for.

    國家和全球的多項政策和市場順風加強了對強勁積壓增長的預期。在美國,拜登總統的能源和氣候議程要求擴大現有的清潔能源激勵措施,例如聯邦投資稅收抵免、增加對碳捕獲的補貼以及對藍氫和綠氫的投資。總統已承諾投入數十億美元改善基礎設施和提高氣候適應能力。 Bloom 非常適合提供政府正在尋找的可靠電力和清潔能源解決方案。

  • Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has pledged to pursue pro-market policies that augur well for increased investment in our infrastructure. Energy Secretary nominee, Jennifer Granholm, has called on American companies to partner in the clean energy transformation and create good paying jobs. She has emphasized the need for carbon capture and sequestration technology, which enable cleaner natural gas power generation, and ensure that the clean energy revolution also benefits gas-producing states. Bloom Energy's technology solutions and its American made products are well suited to meet these needs and aspirations.

    財政部長珍妮特耶倫已承諾推行親市場政策,這些政策預示著增加對我們基礎設施的投資。能源部長提名人珍妮弗格蘭霍姆呼籲美國公司在清潔能源轉型方面合作並創造高薪工作。她強調了碳捕獲和封存技術的必要性,這種技術可以實現更清潔的天然氣發電,並確保清潔能源革命也有利於天然氣生產國。 Bloom Energy 的技術解決方案及其美國製造的產品非常適合滿足這些需求和願望。

  • We have seen similar bold move from leaders in Europe and Asia in recent months. These policy announcements, coupled with market pull, create the potential for robust growth in several new areas.

    最近幾個月,我們看到歐洲和亞洲領導人採取了類似的大膽舉措。這些政策公告,加上市場拉動,為幾個新領域的強勁增長創造了潛力。

  • Let me highlight one such market opportunity, powering electric vehicles, which are becoming more prevalent. The federal government has recently pledged to convert its entire fleet into electric vehicles. General Motors aims to produce only zero-carbon vehicles by 2035, and many global automakers have set similar goals. Increased adoption of electric vehicles will put a greater strain on the aging electric grid. Toyota's President, Akio Toyoda, recently noted that Japan would run out of electricity in the summer if all cars were running on electric power. Even if the generation capacity were increased, the last-mile distribution upgrades in cities like New York, Tokyo and Mumbai would be cost prohibited.

    讓我強調一個這樣的市場機會,為越來越普遍的電動汽車提供動力。聯邦政府最近承諾將其整個車隊轉換為電動汽車。通用汽車的目標是到 2035 年只生產零碳汽車,許多全球汽車製造商也設定了類似的目標。電動汽車的普及將給老化的電網帶來更大的壓力。豐田總裁 Akio Toyoda 最近指出,如果所有汽車都使用電力,日本將在夏季用完電力。即使發電容量增加,紐約、東京和孟買等城市的最後一英里配電升級也將成本過高。

  • Additionally, power grids are often disrupted for prolonged periods of time after natural disasters. In a world replete with electric vehicles, resilient power is vital for safety and security, enabling people to evacuate, if needed, and for essential aid to be delivered. Bloom Energy offers that resilient solution. Our unparalleled always-on product includes 24/7 baseload power with very high availability, quality and point-of-consumption generation. Bloom provides an option for electric utilities to eliminate or mitigate the need to upgrade local distribution or create new generation capacity. This presents an opportunity for Bloom servers to be part of the infrastructure that powers up vehicles as fleet terminals or, more broadly, at a new network of charging stations. Our 400-volt direct current output is ideally suited for reliably, rapidly and most efficiently charging EV battery and offers the flexibility to operate on clean and green fuel.

    此外,電網經常在自然災害後長時間中斷。在充滿電動汽車的世界中,彈性電力對於安全和安保至關重要,使人們能夠在需要時撤離,並提供必要的援助。 Bloom Energy 提供了這種彈性解決方案。我們無與倫比的始終在線產品包括 24/7 基本負載電源,具有非常高的可用性、質量和消費點發電。 Bloom 為電力公司提供了一種選擇,以消除或減輕升級本地配電或創建新發電能力的需要。這為 Bloom 服務器提供了一個機會,使其成為基礎設施的一部分,作為車隊終端或更廣泛地說,在新的充電站網絡中為車輛提供動力。我們的 400 伏直流輸出非常適合可靠、快速和最高效地為 EV 電池充電,並提供使用清潔和綠色燃料運行的靈活性。

  • I want to stress the significant progress that Bloom Energy has made since the start of last year. We are a stronger company today than we were a year ago. We have balance sheet strength and flexibility. We have a very compelling value proposition. And our message to policymakers is resonating now more than ever. We are at the forefront of innovation in the energy sector. 20 years ago, we laid out a bold vision for energy transformation. We have been developing and delivering solutions based on that vision. We feel immensely encouraged by the momentum that we are generating and are confident in our ability to execute. With a strong leadership team, new solutions, new markets and multiple pathways to low- and zero-carbon energy, Bloom Energy is exceedingly well positioned for this moment.

    我想強調 Bloom Energy 自去年年初以來取得的重大進展。我們今天是一家比一年前更強大的公司。我們擁有資產負債表的實力和靈活性。我們有一個非常引人注目的價值主張。我們向政策制定者發出的信息現在比以往任何時候都更能引起共鳴。我們處於能源領域創新的前沿。 20 年前,我們提出了能源轉型的大膽願景。我們一直在開發和交付基於該願景的解決方案。我們對我們正在產生的勢頭感到非常鼓舞,並對我們的執行能力充滿信心。憑藉強大的領導團隊、新的解決方案、新的市場以及通往低碳和零碳能源的多種途徑,Bloom Energy 在這一刻處於非常有利的位置。

  • Let me now turn it over to Greg.

    現在讓我把它交給格雷格。

  • Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

    Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

  • Thanks, KR, and it's a pleasure to connect with everyone again.

    謝謝,KR,很高興再次與大家聯繫。

  • Before I jump into the financials, I want to highlight some of the changes we've implemented to our earnings process in order to provide additional transparency in a more standardized format. As you've hopefully already observed, we've increased the information in our earnings release. We will no longer be providing a shareholder letter but have included the relevant information into the earnings release. We have evolved the supplemental financial information presentation to provide additional insights into our operating environment. We've made these changes based on your feedback, and we'll incorporate additional input going forward.

    在我進入財務之前,我想強調我們對收益流程實施的一些變化,以便以更標準化的格式提供額外的透明度。正如您希望已經觀察到的那樣,我們增加了收益發布中的信息。我們將不再提供股東信函,但已將相關信息納入收益發布。我們改進了補充財務信息的介紹,以提供對我們運營環境的更多見解。我們已根據您的反饋進行了這些更改,並且我們將在未來納入更多意見。

  • Now let me get into the financial performance for the fourth quarter and the year 2020. I'll be referring to the slide presentation posted to our website. While 2020 was an exceptionally challenging year, we were pleased with the progress we've made to advance our strategy, grow our business and deliver strong financial results, all while improving our balance sheet. We are well positioned in 2021 and beyond to enter new markets, evolve our technologies and build larger operating scale.

    現在讓我談談第四季度和 2020 年的財務業績。我指的是發佈在我們網站上的幻燈片演示。儘管 2020 年是極具挑戰性的一年,但我們對在推進戰略、發展業務和實現強勁財務業績以及改善資產負債表方面取得的進展感到高興。我們有能力在 2021 年及以後進入新市場、發展我們的技術並擴大運營規模。

  • We ended the year with 450 acceptances in the fourth quarter, up 16.6% versus the fourth quarter of 2019, bringing us to 1,326 systems for the total year, up 11% versus last year. These are record numbers for Bloom, both in the quarter and the total year, for acceptances. These acceptances also delivered record revenue for the fourth quarter of $249.4 million, up 16.8% versus the fourth quarter of 2019. Even in this challenging environment, we were able to improve our performance versus 2019, increasing our total year revenue by $9 million to $794.2 million for 2020. We are proud of our team's effort in a very difficult operating environment.

    我們在第四季度以 450 個驗收結束了這一年,比 2019 年第四季度增長了 16.6%,使我們全年達到 1,326 個系統,比去年增長了 11%。這些是 Bloom 在本季度和全年的接受人數記錄。這些承兌還為第四季度帶來了創紀錄的 2.494 億美元收入,比 2019 年第四季度增長 16.8%。即使在這種充滿挑戰的環境中,我們也能夠比 2019 年提高業績,使我們的年度總收入增加 900 萬美元,達到 794.2 美元百萬為 2020 年。我們為我們的團隊在非常困難的運營環境中所做的努力感到自豪。

  • Moving on to our profitability metrics. We continue to see improvement in our margins as we drove a reduction of nearly 17% in our total product cost for the year. In the fourth quarter, our non-GAAP gross margins were 27%, up 11.3 points (sic) [11.3%] versus the fourth quarter of the prior year and 23.1% for the total year, up 4.9 points (sic) [4.9%] versus 2019. As you'll see in the upcoming analysis on Slide 5 of the presentation, we continue to improve margins through lower product costs and better performance on installations. More to come on this later.

    繼續我們的盈利指標。隨著我們推動全年產品總成本降低近 17%,我們的利潤率繼續提高。第四季度,我們的非美國通用會計準則毛利率為 27%,比去年第四季度增長 11.3 個百分點(原文如此)[11.3%],全年為 23.1%,增長 4.9 個百分點(原文如此)[4.9%] ] 與 2019 年相比。正如您將在即將對演示文稿的幻燈片 5 進行的分析中看到的那樣,我們繼續通過降低產品成本和提高安裝性能來提高利潤率。稍後會有更多內容。

  • The improvement in gross margins translated to improvements in operating income with non-GAAP operating income of $12 million for the fourth quarter, an improvement of $23.8 million versus the fourth quarter of last year. We improved our total operating income by $29.6 million versus 2019. We delivered adjusted EBITDA of $25.5 million for the fourth quarter and $45.5 million for the total year 2020. With the increase in acceptances and revenue, the fourth quarter was up $24.3 million versus prior year. This resulted in a total year increase of $2.6 million as the fourth quarter performance was enough to surpass the higher EBITDA profile of the repowerings of the second and third quarter of 2019. These margins and operating income performance, when coupled with the reduction in our debt costs, dramatically improved our adjusted EPS versus prior periods.

    毛利率的提高轉化為營業收入的增加,第四季度非美國通用會計準則營業收入為 1200 萬美元,比去年第四季度增加 2380 萬美元。與 2019 年相比,我們的總營業收入增加了 2960 萬美元。我們第四季度的調整後 EBITDA 為 2550 萬美元,2020 年全年為 4550 萬美元。隨著承兌匯票和收入的增加,第四季度比上年增加了 2430 萬美元.這導致全年總增長 260 萬美元,因為第四季度的業績足以超過 2019 年第二和第三季度重新調整後更高的 EBITDA 概況。這些利潤率和營業收入表現,再加上我們的債務減少成本,大大提高了我們調整後的每股收益與前期相比。

  • With respect to our debt and balance sheet, it's important to revisit and, in the fourth quarter, we completed the retirement of the 10% senior secured notes due July 2024 and the conversion of the remainder of our 10% convertible notes due December 2021. This addressed our near-term maturity overhang and, when compared to last year, improved our cash position by $39 million while reducing our debt outstanding $131 million.

    關於我們的債務和資產負債表,重要的是要重新審視,並且在第四季度,我們完成了 2024 年 7 月到期的 10% 優先擔保票據的退役以及 2021 年 12 月到期的剩餘 10% 可轉換票據的轉換。這解決了我們的短期到期過剩問題,與去年相比,我們的現金狀況改善了 3900 萬美元,同時減少了 1.31 億美元的未償債務。

  • Overall, we're pleased with our performance in 2020 and encouraged by the fourth quarter both in our ability to grow revenues and maintain our trajectory on profitability. These are meaningful proof points on our journey to the objectives we shared at Analyst Day. We feel we have a strong franchise with our core product. It's a platform that's flexible and adaptable. As we execute on our growth pillars, we can build additional applications for hydrogen fuel cells, electrolyzers, marine, biogas and carbon capture technologies.

    總體而言,我們對我們在 2020 年的表現感到滿意,並在第四季度增加收入和保持盈利軌蹟的能力方面受到鼓舞。在我們實現我們在分析師日分享的目標的過程中,這些是有意義的證明點。我們覺得我們的核心產品擁有強大的特許經營權。這是一個靈活且適應性強的平台。在我們執行我們的增長支柱時,我們可以為氫燃料電池、電解槽、海洋、沼氣和碳捕獲技術構建更多應用。

  • Now let's take a look at our bookings and backlog as we only provide this onetime each year. Even in a very difficult environment, we're pleased that we were able to maintain our backlog of nearly 2,000 systems. Customers, such as hospitals, universities and retailers were impacted by COVID, especially early in the year. But as we proceeded through the year, each quarter, we saw an increase in our bookings as customers reengaged. We are encouraged by the continued commercial momentum and are hopeful to see additional opportunities with the new administration's focus on clean infrastructure.

    現在讓我們來看看我們的預訂和積壓,因為我們每年只提供一次。即使在非常困難的環境中,我們也很高興能夠維持我們積壓的近 2,000 個系統。醫院、大學和零售商等客戶受到 COVID 的影響,尤其是在年初。但隨著我們這一年的進行,每個季度,隨著客戶重新參與,我們的預訂量有所增加。我們對持續的商業勢頭感到鼓舞,並希望看到新政府對清潔基礎設施的關注帶來更多機會。

  • In addition to our system backlog, we have a service backlog of $3.4 billion, in line with the increase in our installed base. When combined with our system backlog, our total backlog is $4.4 billion. As we discussed during the Analyst Day presentation, there is currently enough system backlog for nearly all of our planned acceptances required to support the $950 million to $1 billion of revenue targeted for 2021, meaning, within the U.S. market, we're not dependent upon any new bookings in 2021 to support our projections. And for our international business, given the short time frame between booking and acceptance, we planned 2021 acceptances either identified, in pipeline or backlog.

    除了我們的系統積壓,我們還有 34 億美元的服務積壓,這與我們安裝基數的增加是一致的。加上我們的系統積壓,我們的總積壓為 44 億美元。正如我們在分析師日的演講中所討論的那樣,目前有足夠的系統積壓來支持我們計劃的幾乎所有驗收,以支持 2021 年 9.5 億至 10 億美元的收入目標,這意味著,在美國市場,我們不依賴於2021 年的任何新預訂來支持我們的預測。對於我們的國際業務,鑑於預訂和驗收之間的時間間隔很短,我們計劃在 2021 年驗收已確定、正在籌備或積壓的訂單。

  • Given our growth expectations, we've reached the point where we will be making investments to increase our manufacturing capacity. Today, we have capacity to support 200 megawatts of revenue system stacks. We are securing an additional 200 megawatts of fuel cell manufacturing line as part of our Bloom 7.5 introduction. This combined capacity will provide 400 megawatts of fuel cell or nearly 1 gigawatt of electrolyzer capacity that we can allocate based upon market demand. As KR mentioned earlier, a significant benefit of our platform is that we can utilize the same manufacturing for all our applications with limited investment or customization. And the investments we do make are very efficient, an investment of $50 million to $75 million required to double our capacity as a payback of less than 1 year when fully utilized.

    鑑於我們的增長預期,我們已經到了需要進行投資以提高製造能力的地步。今天,我們有能力支持 200 兆瓦的收入系統堆棧。作為 Bloom 7.5 引進的一部分,我們正在確保額外的 200 兆瓦燃料電池生產線。這一合併容量將提供 400 兆瓦的燃料電池或近 1 吉瓦的電解槽容量,我們可以根據市場需求進行分配。正如 KR 之前提到的,我們平台的一個顯著優勢是我們可以在有限的投資或定制的情況下為我們的所有應用程序使用相同的製造。我們所做的投資非常有效,需要 5000 萬至 7500 萬美元的投資才能使我們的產能翻一番,因為在充分利用後不到 1 年就可以收回投資。

  • On Bloom 7.5, we completed our first customer installation in December. The unit is functioning as expected, and we are gathering performance data. We will operationalize the manufacturing of Bloom 7.5 and increase production throughout 2021. And in 2022, Bloom 7.5 will cross over to being the majority of our systems being manufactured. Given the strong performance of our current Bloom 5.0 technology, as demonstrated in our margins, for now, we'll continue to manufacture it at its current levels. The new investments will be made for Bloom 7.5. And the manufacturing facility that we are securing will have the space to triple our capacity of our first line.

    在 Bloom 7.5 上,我們在 12 月完成了第一次客戶安裝。該裝置按預期運行,我們正在收集性能數據。我們將在 2021 年實施 Bloom 7.5 的製造並增加產量。到 2022 年,Bloom 7.5 將成為我們正在製造的大部分系統。鑑於我們當前 Bloom 5.0 技術的強勁性能,正如我們的利潤所證明的那樣,目前,我們將繼續以目前的水平生產它。新投資將用於 Bloom 7.5。我們正在確保的製造設施將有足夠的空間將我們第一線的產能提高三倍。

  • With 2021 underway, our team is focused on increasing our bookings to support at least 25% growth in 2022. We've made adjustments to our sales force and focused on expanding in the U.S. with additional states and through new partnerships both domestically and internationally. These expansions, coupled with the technology road map of our fuel flexible platform, provide multiple avenues to secure new bookings to support our growth.

    隨著 2021 年的到來,我們的團隊專注於增加我們的預訂量,以支持 2022 年至少 25% 的增長。我們已經對我們的銷售人員進行了調整,並專注於在美國與其他州以及通過國內和國際的新合作夥伴關係進行擴張。這些擴展,加上我們燃料靈活平台的技術路線圖,提供了多種途徑來確保新預訂以支持我們的增長。

  • Moving on to Slide 5 for our margin analysis. Here, we've broken down our non-GAAP gross profit and margins by source of revenue. Our overall increase in non-GAAP gross margins is relatively driven by improvements to the product margin, resulting from continued reductions in product costs. For the fourth quarter, we achieved our targeted 40% non-GAAP gross margin for product. We had a good quarter on our performance on installations where we nearly broke even. For the year, we were roughly the same as 2019. Remember, this is a part of our business where we're targeting breakeven as we pass along the budgeted cost of installation to our customers. Going forward, we are exploring partnerships that would be accretive to our margins as those partners will perform the installs and earn the revenue, thus reducing the operating complexity and dilution to our margins.

    轉到幻燈片 5 進行利潤率分析。在這裡,我們按收入來源細分了我們的非 GAAP 毛利潤和利潤率。我們非 GAAP 毛利率的總體增長相對是由產品成本持續降低導致的產品利潤率提高所推動的。第四季度,我們實現了 40% 的產品非 GAAP 毛利率目標。我們在幾乎收支平衡的安裝方面取得了不錯的成績。這一年,我們與 2019 年大致相同。請記住,這是我們業務的一部分,我們的目標是收支平衡,因為我們將預算安裝成本轉嫁給客戶。展望未來,我們正在探索可以增加我們利潤率的合作夥伴關係,因為這些合作夥伴將執行安裝並賺取收入,從而降低運營複雜性和對我們利潤率的稀釋。

  • For consistency, we have included the dollar per kilowatt analysis that we have historically provided in our shareholder letter. The profit per kilowatt results are similar to the total business with an increase in profitability in 2020 versus 2019, especially in the fourth quarter of 2020. As we go forward, I would expect that each quarter, there may be some variation in our profitability depending upon acceptance mix.

    為了保持一致性,我們將以往在股東信中提供的每千瓦美元分析包括在內。每千瓦利潤結果與整體業務相似,2020 年的盈利能力比 2019 年有所增加,尤其是在 2020 年第四季度。隨著我們向前發展,我預計每個季度我們的盈利能力可能會有所不同,具體取決於經驗收組合。

  • Our service business lost nearly $7 million for the fourth quarter. We have committed resources to achieve profitability in the near future. If you turn to Slide 6, we lay out the changes and results to our service business. KR referenced this in his opening remarks, so I'd like to share some additional details.

    我們的服務業務在第四季度虧損近 700 萬美元。我們已投入資源以在不久的將來實現盈利。如果您轉到幻燈片 6,我們會列出我們服務業務的變化和結果。 KR 在他的開場白中提到了這一點,所以我想分享一些額外的細節。

  • We have more than doubled the life of our power modules since 2012 and expect our most recent vintages to season with over a 5.5-year life. We've also made changes using data from our systems in the field and how to optimize the fleet by targeting specific power modules for replacement. These changes are important as they reduce the frequency of providing power modules, which is a significant portion of our service cost. In addition, since 2012, we've reduced the cost of each of these power modules by 61%. The combination of all of these changes results in less service costs as we are required to provide less power modules and those we do provide are at a lower cost. In the second half of 2020, we made an investment to provide additional power modules to increase the power output for our customers, which increased our cost. As part of our pathway to profitability, we plan to make that investment over the course of 2 years. And when additional modules became available, we took the opportunity to accelerate the shipments and move the business towards profitability sooner.

    自 2012 年以來,我們將電源模塊的使用壽命延長了一倍以上,並預計我們最近的年份酒的使用壽命將超過 5.5 年。我們還使用我們現場系統的數據進行了更改,以及如何通過針對特定電源模塊進行更換來優化車隊。這些變化很重要,因為它們減少了提供電源模塊的頻率,而電源模塊是我們服務成本的很大一部分。此外,自 2012 年以來,我們將每個電源模塊的成本降低了 61%。所有這些變化的結合導致服務成本降低,因為我們需要提供更少的電源模塊,而我們提供的模塊成本更低。 2020年下半年,我們投資提供額外的功率模塊,為客戶增加功率輸出,這增加了我們的成本。作為我們盈利之路的一部分,我們計劃在 2 年內完成這項投資。當其他模塊可用時,我們藉此機會加快了出貨速度,使業務更快地實現盈利。

  • At Analyst Day, I committed to the service business being profitable by 2022. Now with these investments, we are projecting to achieve profitability for the year 2021, earlier than we anticipated. And we expect the service revenue to grow and profitability to be sustained over the long term, a very positive development for our overall business.

    在分析師日,我承諾服務業務到 2022 年實現盈利。現在有了這些投資,我們預計將在 2021 年實現盈利,這比我們預期的要早。我們預計服務收入將增長,盈利能力將長期保持,這對我們的整體業務來說是一個非常積極的發展。

  • As part of our commitment for increased transparency, we are planning to host an investor event this month to provide additional detail on the economics and processes underlying our service business. We think these focused presentations and the follow-on discussions are a good way to go a little bit deeper into our business and help the financial community understand our approach. I look forward to sharing more on the team's performance as we deliver through 2021.

    作為我們提高透明度承諾的一部分,我們計劃在本月舉辦一次投資者活動,以提供有關我們服務業務的經濟和流程的更多詳細信息。我們認為這些重點介紹和後續討論是深入了解我們業務並幫助金融界了解我們方法的好方法。我期待在 2021 年之前分享更多關於團隊表現的信息。

  • The next slide is an analysis of our cash flows, cash balances and debt levels. A few highlights on the page, going forward, we will focus our cash performance on cash flow from operating activities, or CFOA, as this provides insights into the cash-generation capability of the business. While we were a user of cash in 2020, I note we reduced our usage in the fourth quarter through an increase in our EBITDA and a reduction in our cash payments for debt interest. These improvements were not enough to offset the needs for working capital within the quarter. Specifically, we secured an additional $22 million in safe harbor inventory to ensure our customers retain the ITC benefits scheduled to be reduced at year-end. While ITC was extended for 2 years in December, it occurred so late in the year that we were unable to significantly adjust these inventory levels. Over the course of 2021, we expect to utilize these inventories while avoiding additional investments, thus reducing our working capital.

    下一張幻燈片是對我們的現金流量、現金餘額和債務水平的分析。頁面上的一些亮點,展望未來,我們將把我們的現金績效集中在經營活動產生的現金流量或 CFOA 上,因為這提供了對企業現金生成能力的洞察。雖然我們在 2020 年是現金用戶,但我注意到我們在第四季度通過增加 EBITDA 和減少債務利息的現金支付來減少我們的使用。這些改進不足以抵消本季度的營運資金需求。具體來說,我們額外獲得了 2200 萬美元的安全港庫存,以確保我們的客戶保留計劃在年底減少的 ITC 福利。雖然 ITC 在 12 月延長了 2 年,但它發生的時間太晚了,我們無法顯著調整這些庫存水平。在 2021 年期間,我們希望在避免額外投資的同時利用這些庫存,從而減少我們的營運資金。

  • Our cash balances have increased since last year. Total cash increased by $39.3 million to $416.7 million, and the unrestricted component grew by slightly more, up $44.1 million versus prior year to reach $246.9 million. The reduction in unrestricted cash from the third quarter was driven by the payoff of the 10% senior secured notes due July 2024 for approximately $79 million. We have reduced our recourse debt by $117 million over the [course of the year] both by paying off high coupon notes and the exchange to equity of our legacy convertible debt. These reductions and the decrease in comparable interest rate for the convertible green bonds issued in August have reduced our annual debt service cost by $44 million since the first quarter. These savings place Bloom in a much stronger liquidity position than we were just 9 months ago and provide us with the opportunity to further invest in growth.

    自去年以來,我們的現金餘額有所增加。現金總額增加 3930 萬美元,達到 4.167 億美元,不受限制的現金部分增長略多,比上年增加 4410 萬美元,達到 2.469 億美元。第三季度非限制性現金減少的原因是支付了 2024 年 7 月到期的 10% 優先擔保票據,金額約為 7900 萬美元。通過償還高票息票據和將我們遺留的可轉換債務轉換為股權,我們在 [年內] 減少了 1.17 億美元的追索權債務。這些減少以及 8 月份發行的可轉換綠色債券的可比利率下降使我們的年度償債成本自第一季度以來減少了 4400 萬美元。這些節省使 Bloom 的流動性狀況比我們 9 個月前強得多,並為我們提供了進一步投資於增長的機會。

  • On Slide 8, we revisit the outlook we provided in December, and we are reaffirming all of our 2021 targets. For revenue, based upon the visibility of our backlog and pipeline, we expect to be between $950 million and $1 billion. Non-GAAP gross margins are targeted at around 25%, and we expect to deliver a positive non-GAAP operating income of roughly 3% of revenue. With the extension of ITC, we should be able to reduce our inventory levels, creating less need for working capital, providing an opportunity to improve on the cash metric. As CFOA is a new metric for us to forecast, I've left the outlook as approaching positive. As we proceed through the year and gain more visibility, I will provide updates on this expectation.

    在幻燈片 8 中,我們重新審視了 12 月提供的展望,並重申了我們 2021 年的所有目標。對於收入,根據我們積壓和管道的可見性,我們預計將在 9.5 億美元至 10 億美元之間。非 GAAP 毛利率目標為 25% 左右,我們預計將實現約佔收入 3% 的正非 GAAP 營業收入。隨著 ITC 的擴展,我們應該能夠降低我們的庫存水平,減少對營運資金的需求,提供改善現金指標的機會。由於 CFOA 是我們預測的新指標,我認為前景接近樂觀。隨著我們這一年的進行並獲得更多的知名度,我將提供有關這一期望的最新信息。

  • While we are not providing quarterly guidance, each earnings call, we plan to provide an update on performance and expectations versus our 2021 framework. I'll endeavor to highlight anomalies, while incorporated in our internal plan, may not be apparent in the total year framework. One example, just as in prior years, we expect the second half revenue to be greater than the first half. Also, like most product companies, we expect to be a user of cash in the first half of the year as we build inventories for the second half deliveries.

    雖然我們不提供季度指導,但在每次財報電話會議上,我們計劃提供與 2021 年框架相比的績效和預期的最新情況。我將努力強調異常情況,雖然這些異常情況已納入我們的內部計劃,但在全年框架中可能並不明顯。一個例子,就像往年一樣,我們預計下半年收入將大於上半年。此外,與大多數產品公司一樣,我們預計在上半年會成為現金用戶,因為我們會為下半年的交付建立庫存。

  • In summary, we had a very strong operating performance in the fourth quarter. And given the environment, it was a really good year for us in 2020. We are gaining momentum in our commercial operations and are expanding our footprint in the U.S. and internationally. We continue to have great relationships and growth opportunities in South Korea and are focused on new market opportunities and geographies as well as partnerships both domestically and internationally. Our service business outlook is improving, and we now expect to be profitable a year sooner. Our liquidity position has strengthened versus a year ago with increased cash and reduced debt. Lastly, we are reaffirming our 2021 framework. Bloom Energy is well positioned and has a road map to create significant shareholder value.

    總之,我們在第四季度的經營業績非常強勁。考慮到環境,2020 年對我們來說是非常好的一年。我們的商業運營勢頭強勁,並正在擴大我們在美國和國際上的足跡。我們繼續在韓國擁有良好的關係和增長機會,並專注於新的市場機會和地區以及國內和國際的合作夥伴關係。我們的服務業務前景正在改善,現在我們預計將提前一年實現盈利。隨著現金增加和債務減少,我們的流動性狀況與一年前相比有所增強。最後,我們重申我們的 2021 年框架。 Bloom Energy 處於有利地位,並製定了創造重要股東價值的路線圖。

  • With that, operator, let's open up the line for questions.

    有了這個,接線員,讓我們打開問題熱線。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • (Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Stephen Byrd from Morgan Stanley.

    (操作員說明)您的第一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Stephen Byrd。

  • Stephen Calder Byrd - MD and Head of North American Research for the Power & Utilities and Clean Energy

    Stephen Calder Byrd - MD and Head of North American Research for the Power & Utilities and Clean Energy

  • Hope you all are doing well.

    希望你們一切都好。

  • K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

    K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

  • Great, Stephen.

    太好了,斯蒂芬。

  • Stephen Calder Byrd - MD and Head of North American Research for the Power & Utilities and Clean Energy

    Stephen Calder Byrd - MD and Head of North American Research for the Power & Utilities and Clean Energy

  • I wanted to explore a couple of technology and product developments, if I could. Maybe first, just on carbon capture. I'm just interested in your latest thoughts in terms of both the technical product feasibility as well as sort of the commercial interest in the product and sort of your general views on the progression. KR, you noted that there certainly is potential support here at the federal level. But I was just curious on your thoughts on your own product development and sort of commercial rollout.

    如果可以的話,我想探索一些技術和產品開發。也許首先,只是關於碳捕獲。我只對您在技術產品可行性、產品商業利益以及您對進展的一般看法方面的最新想法感興趣。 KR,你注意到聯邦層面肯定有潛在的支持。但我只是想知道你對自己的產品開發和商業推廣的想法。

  • K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

    K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

  • So Stephen, great question, and this is extremely important. If you look at whether it is the Department of Energy, whether it's the IPCC, whether it is IEA, they all talk about carbon capture being essential in this transformation as we go forward, an abridge to decarbonizing, which is the most important thing for climate change. And the beauty of our technology here, there is a change since we last talked to you of connecting the hydrogen demand and carbon capture together. And that makes this even better, really one plus one being greater than two kind of an example here, right, which is with our server, we can now bring in natural gas and we can produce blue hydrogen, electricity and carbon capture. And we can dial between the amount of blue hydrogen we produce and the electricity we produce.

    斯蒂芬,問得好,這非常重要。如果你看看能源部、政府間氣候變化專門委員會、國際能源署,他們都在談論碳捕獲在我們前進的轉型中必不可少,這是脫碳的一個橋樑,這是最重要的事情氣候變化。自從我們上次與您討論將氫氣需求和碳捕獲聯繫在一起以來,我們這裡的技術之美髮生了變化。這使它變得更好,真的一加一大於這裡的兩個例子,對,這是我們的服務器,我們現在可以引入天然氣,我們可以生產藍色氫氣、電力和碳捕獲。我們可以在我們生產的藍色氫氣量和我們生產的電力之間進行調整。

  • If you remember our old technology flow diagram from the hydrogen analysis that we showed you, coming out of our system, we can separate out hydrogen and carbon dioxide. We can either send the hydrogen back into the fuel cell to produce electricity or we can supply that hydrogen for hard-to-decarbonize industrial uses, which becomes a premium product, so being able to work in 20-, 50-, 100-megawatt chunks where we can produce tri-generation, if you want to think about it that way, of electricity, hydrogen and carbon dioxide together. So this is a technology that's being rapidly developed in the lab. We are working on it. And I think given what you have seen in the federal government and the interest in saying all of the above to decarbonize as a technology, I'm very bullish about it. Did you understand the ability to combine carbon capture and blue hydrogen?

    如果您還記得我們向您展示的氫氣分析的舊技術流程圖,從我們的系統中出來,我們可以分離出氫氣和二氧化碳。我們可以將氫氣送回燃料電池發電,也可以將氫氣用於難以脫碳的工業用途,這將成為優質產品,因此能夠在 20、50、100 兆瓦的功率下工作如果你想這樣想的話,我們可以在其中產生三代的區塊,即電力、氫氣和二氧化碳。所以這是一項正在實驗室中快速發展的技術。我們正在做這件事。而且我認為,鑑於您在聯邦政府中看到的情況以及將上述所有內容作為一項技術脫碳的興趣,我對此非常看好。您了解結合碳捕獲和藍氫的能力嗎?

  • Stephen Calder Byrd - MD and Head of North American Research for the Power & Utilities and Clean Energy

    Stephen Calder Byrd - MD and Head of North American Research for the Power & Utilities and Clean Energy

  • Yes, that makes sense. And the ability to sort of toggle and flex makes sense. And I guess I would have thought the energy sector broadly would be highly interested in this product and interested in rollout. Is that fair to say that there is interest in the energy sector for this?

    是的,這是有道理的。切換和彎曲的能力很有意義。而且我想我會認為能源部門廣泛會對這種產品非常感興趣並且對推出感興趣。可以公平地說能源部門對此感興趣嗎?

  • K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

    K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

  • There is interest in the energy sector for this, and we are building our lab demonstrations and we're working very hard to demonstrate it. And the beauty with our system that, again, I want to emphasize, is unlike many technologies that you develop in the lab in small scale but when you scale it, you have scaling issues. Because of the modular architecture that we have, we can build this add-ons to the platform and demonstrate it at a power module level. And the scaling is not a scaling issue for us unlike anybody else, so that's one advantage. And the second advantage here is also, while we are focused on CO2, let's also remember that this is the only technology that does not bring about the air pollution and does not require water and does not need that big land use you need, in some other cases, an EP to permit. You put those things together, it becomes a very compelling value proposition.

    能源部門對此很感興趣,我們正在建立我們的實驗室示範,我們正在非常努力地進行示範。我想再次強調的是,我們系統的美妙之處與您在實驗室中小規模開發的許多技術不同,但當您擴展它時,就會遇到擴展問題。由於我們擁有模塊化架構,我們可以將此附加組件構建到平台並在電源模塊級別進行演示。與其他人不同,縮放對我們來說不是縮放問題,所以這是一個優勢。這裡的第二個優勢也是,雖然我們專注於二氧化碳,但我們也要記住,這是唯一不會造成空氣污染、不需要水、也不需要你需要的大片土地使用的技術,在某些情況下其他情況,EP 允許。你把這些東西放在一起,它就變成了一個非常引人注目的價值主張。

  • Stephen Calder Byrd - MD and Head of North American Research for the Power & Utilities and Clean Energy

    Stephen Calder Byrd - MD and Head of North American Research for the Power & Utilities and Clean Energy

  • That makes sense. And then maybe just for my other area of focus, EV charging. And this, I guess, carry links to the power density point you raised. And I think it's an important point that as we think about fast charging, it is challenging for utilities to put in place the infrastructure needed for very high-voltage, very fast charging. So I see the potential advantage here of what you offer. Could you just maybe speak a little bit more to the path to sales for this and sort of how you might approach this? I'm just kind of curious, everything from likely types of customers to any certifications or just other sort of qualifications needed to sort of have your product be a viable option here for fast charging.

    那講得通。然後也許只是我關注的另一個領域,電動汽車充電。我想,這與您提出的功率密度點有關。而且我認為重要的一點是,當我們考慮快速充電時,公用事業公司很難建立非常高電壓、非常快速的充電所需的基礎設施。所以我在這裡看到了您所提供產品的潛在優勢。您能否就此的銷售途徑以及您可能如何處理此問題多說一點?我只是有點好奇,從可能的客戶類型到任何認證或其他類型的資格,一切都需要讓你的產品成為快速充電的可行選擇。

  • K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

    K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

  • Sure. So there are 3 or 4 things that I want to talk about and for people to appreciate, which I am sure you do, but for everyone to understand, right? Just imagine a significant double-digit adoption of electric vehicles happening very soon. We don't have to imagine, it's going to happen, right? So when you see those happen in metro areas, if every family has an electric car and they need to charge it, the increase in the amount of electricity needed in any one zip code is going to be so large at that last-mile, transmission, distribution upgrade that needs to happen.

    當然。所以有 3 或 4 件事我想談論並讓人們欣賞,我相信你會這樣做,但每個人都能理解,對嗎?試想一下,電動汽車的採用率很快就會以兩位數的速度增長。我們不必想像,它會發生,對吧?所以當你看到這些發生在大都市地區時,如果每個家庭都有一輛電動汽車並且他們需要給它充電,那麼在最後一英里,任何一個郵政編碼所需的電量增加都會如此之大,傳輸,需要進行的分發升級。

  • And imagine having fleets of vehicles whether -- either delivery vehicles, warehouse vehicles, all those things. If they had a fleet of vehicles that need to be charged, if there are bus depots that need to get charged, school buses that need to get charged, a significant amount of power that needs to come in. And that now poses a very good option for the utility to consider: am I going to invest in transmission, distribution, last mile issues that are very difficult to permit or do I want to put resilient power right where I can charge and the efficiency of not having the transmission, distribution market. The efficiency of not converting power from DC to AC and then back to DC to charge a vehicle, to get that high-voltage right where you need it, to not create instability in the grid, it's a huge advantage.

    想像一下擁有車隊——無論是送貨車、倉庫車,還是所有這些東西。如果他們有需要充電的車隊,如果有需要充電的公共汽車站,需要充電的校車,需要輸入大量的電力。現在這構成了一個非常好的公用事業公司要考慮的選項:我是否要投資輸電、配電、最後一英里問題,這些問題非常難以允許,或者我是否想將彈性電力放在我可以充電的地方,以及沒有輸電、配電市場的效率.不將電力從直流電轉換為交流電,然後再轉換回直流電來為車輛充電,在您需要的地方獲得高壓,不在電網中造成不穩定,這是一個巨大的優勢。

  • So the question you ask there is, with all these advantages, who is an ideal customer? That's a great question. And it could be -- depending on the locations and depending on the customers, it could be very different. In many places, I would imagine, the utility would want to own that asset and be able to provide that power and rate base it because they can defer T&D cost, and it's a win-win for the customer and the utility and for the local rate player. In some other cases, it could be the fleet vehicle owners that want to offer not only the fleet vehicles but also the charging as a service. And in that case, it will be the fleet owner that will be the customer. In some cases, it could be the large corporations that own these, very similar to them buying the PPA electricity from us, would also want us to be part of it. And in some other cases, it could be the charging infrastructure people that would want to not provide the charging infrastructure but also have the generation so they can avoid the demand charges and standby charges that come from the utility. So it could be all of the above.

    所以你問的問題是,擁有所有這些優勢,誰是理想的客戶?這是一個很好的問題。它可能是 - 根據位置和客戶的不同,它可能會非常不同。在許多地方,我想,公用事業公司希望擁有該資產並能夠提供電力和費率基礎,因為他們可以推遲 T&D 成本,這對客戶和公用事業公司以及當地來說是雙贏的率球員。在其他一些情況下,車隊車主可能不僅希望提供車隊車輛,還希望提供充電服務。在這種情況下,車隊所有者將成為客戶。在某些情況下,可能是擁有這些的大公司,非常類似於他們從我們這裡購買 PPA 電力,也希望我們成為其中的一部分。在其他一些情況下,可能是充電基礎設施人員不想提供充電基礎設施,但也有發電,這樣他們就可以避免來自公用事業的需求費用和備用費用。所以它可能是以上所有。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Your next question comes from the line of Michael Weinstein from Crédit Suisse.

    你的下一個問題來自 Crédit Suisse 的 Michael Weinstein。

  • Michael Weinstein - United States Utilities Analyst

    Michael Weinstein - United States Utilities Analyst

  • I guess in the past, you've been limiting the backlog updates to once a year. And I think that because of the lumpiness of bookings over the course of the year, it could make it a highly volatile statistic to be, I guess, updating. But I wonder if in this case, for this year, maybe it might make sense to maybe a mid-year update on it just to -- I mean you've said it's -- you expect a pretty good year for bookings this year, and you know you're going to get asked a lot about this for the rest of this year, so...

    我想在過去,您一直將積壓更新限制為每年一次。而且我認為,由於一年中的預訂量很大,我猜這可能會使它成為一個高度不穩定的統計數據,需要更新。但我想知道,在這種情況下,對於今年,也許對它進行年中更新是否有意義——我的意思是你已經說過——你預計今年的預訂量會非常好,你知道在今年剩下的時間裡你會被問到很多關於這個的問題,所以......

  • Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

    Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

  • Yes. Michael, it's Greg. So listen, we went through and got a lot of feedback, especially around the Analyst Day, on what the expectation was from folks in how they think about it. And overwhelming -- for sure, no one was encouraging us for every quarter to put that out just because of the volatility, some of our large bookings and the distraction that may create from our operating performance. I think, though, going forward, rather than maybe doing it quarterly or even semiannually, what I'll endeavor to do is similar to how we're approaching our total year framework and not providing specific guidance on each quarter, I think there's insight that we can give on each one of these calls on how we're doing.

    是的。邁克爾,是格雷格。所以聽著,我們經歷了很多反饋,尤其是在分析師日前後,關於人們對他們如何看待它的期望是什麼。壓倒性的 - 當然,沒有人鼓勵我們每個季度都因為波動,我們的一些大預訂量以及我們的經營業績可能造成的干擾而將其推出。不過,我認為,展望未來,而不是每季度甚至每半年進行一次,我將努力做的類似於我們接近全年框架的方式,而不是為每個季度提供具體指導,我認為有洞察力我們可以就我們的工作情況對這些電話中的每一個進行說明。

  • Without providing you the number, right, are we making progress, are we seeing activity internationally, are we getting into the additional states that we thought we would, are we getting interest there or is that leading to bookings, and are we establishing the partnerships we want. So feedback well taken and, going forward, I'll take it on personally to make sure I'm providing some transparency on that even if we don't publish a number.

    沒有向您提供數字,對吧,我們是否取得了進展,我們是否在國際上看到了活動,我們是否進入了我們認為我們會進入的其他狀態,我們是否對那裡產生了興趣或者是否導致了預訂,我們是否正在建立合作夥伴關係我們想要。所以反饋很好,展望未來,即使我們不公佈數字,我也會親自處理,以確保我在這方面提供了一些透明度。

  • Michael Weinstein - United States Utilities Analyst

    Michael Weinstein - United States Utilities Analyst

  • Great. And also on service profitability, I think you mentioned it might -- it will be coming in earlier than expected. Is that this year? Do you think you'd be profitable on a run rate basis by the end of this year?

    偉大的。還有關於服務盈利能力,我想你提到過它可能 - 它會比預期更早出現。是今年嗎?你認為到今年年底你會在運行率的基礎上盈利嗎?

  • Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

    Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

  • Yes, yes. So we are -- Glen and the team there has done an amazing job of positioning that business both in driving cost out of the individual power modules as well as the cost to provide service. The backlog continues to grow -- or the installed base continues to grow. And we fully expect that business to be profitable for the total year 2021. And on top of that, we expect revenues to grow in line with the installed base and to maintain that profitability on a go-forward basis. So -- and you'll remember that, that was a business that, from a profitability standpoint, struggled and incurred some big losses in the past. So we feel like we've turned the page on that business, and we're really encouraged to see that to be a contributor to our gross margins and the net positives to our operating income.

    是的是的。所以我們 - 格倫和那裡的團隊在定位該業務方面做得非常出色,既可以降低單個電源模塊的成本,也可以降低提供服務的成本。積壓訂單繼續增長——或者安裝基數繼續增長。我們完全預計該業務將在 2021 年全年實現盈利。除此之外,我們預計收入將與安裝基數同步增長,並在未來保持盈利能力。所以 - 你會記得,從盈利能力的角度來看,這是一家在過去掙扎並遭受重大損失的企業。因此,我們覺得我們已經翻開了該業務的一頁,我們真的很高興看到它成為我們毛利率的貢獻者和我們營業收入的淨正數。

  • K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

    K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

  • Michael, let me add a line -- Michael, this is KR, let me add a line to what Greg just said, right? Ever since the first time I think you said -- you were asking me questions. This was one of the big concerns in the industry and for all of you, right, on service and what does this mean for our long-term contracts and things like that. So the key point that Greg made, and I will emphasize again, we will break even and get to profitability this year. But every year, we expect that margin to grow. And this is going to be a huge, good annuity business for us. And this is what we believe in, this is what we built the infrastructure for and we can see a clear pathway to that.

    邁克爾,讓我加一句——邁克爾,我是 KR,讓我給格雷格剛才說的話加一句,對吧?自從我想你第一次說——你在問我問題。這是業界和你們所有人最關心的問題之一,對吧,關於服務,這對我們的長期合同和類似的事情意味著什麼。因此,格雷格提出的關鍵點,我將再次強調,我們將在今年收支平衡並實現盈利。但每年,我們都希望這個利潤率會增長。這對我們來說將是一個巨大的、好的年金業務。這就是我們所相信的,這就是我們構建基礎設施的目的,我們可以看到通往這一目標的明確途徑。

  • Michael Weinstein - United States Utilities Analyst

    Michael Weinstein - United States Utilities Analyst

  • When do you think you'll get to 20% gross margins? I think that was the original goal, right?

    您認為什麼時候可以達到 20% 的毛利率?我認為那是最初的目標,對吧?

  • Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

    Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

  • Yes. So we're pricing at that today, so those deals go in. And as we continue to mix and as well as continue to take the cost down in our current contracts, it will move towards profitability. I wouldn't commit to you. It's not a 21%. It's not a 22%. As we forecast it out, it's probably more in the 23% range until we get to that level of profitability, maybe 24% on the outset. But we will definitely be profitable, and we'll move up to that 20% as we continue to price at that level and book new deals at that level.

    是的。所以我們今天定價,所以這些交易進入。隨著我們繼續混合併繼續降低我們當前合同的成本,它將走向盈利。我不會承諾給你。這不是 21%。這不是 22%。正如我們預測的那樣,在我們達到盈利水平之前,它可能更多地在 23% 的範圍內,一開始可能是 24%。但我們肯定會盈利,並且隨著我們繼續在該水平定價並在該水平預訂新交易,我們將上升到 20%。

  • K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

    K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

  • And again, the key point here is the contracts we are writing today over the life of the contract will be at that or better margins as what we expected, right?

    再一次,這裡的關鍵點是我們今天正在寫的合同在合同期限內將達到我們預期的那樣或更好的利潤率,對嗎?

  • Michael Weinstein - United States Utilities Analyst

    Michael Weinstein - United States Utilities Analyst

  • Yes. Another question, could you -- do you think we'll see a cash flow-positive situation for 2021, especially since no safe harbor purchases are going to be needed?

    是的。另一個問題,你能不能——你認為我們會在 2021 年看到現金流積極的情況,特別是因為不需要安全港購買嗎?

  • Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

    Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

  • Yes. So we've spent a lot of time on that metric, and I try to give you the context how I see it. It is a new metric for us to forecast. We've obviously been publishing our CFOA and investing and financing components for a long time. But as we forecast that number, it is not the easiest number to forecast. It has a bunch of different variables across the business that all come into that. I would agree with you that not having the ITC and the safe harbor, it's the $22 million that we invested in '21. And then there was probably that number and again some that was originally in our '21 plan. So those should be good tailwinds. I want to get through a quarter or 2 on it, but we are targeting on being cash flow positive, and we are much more confident in our approaching positive. And I'm hopeful that I can update that outlook for folks in a quarter or 2 as we just get some more operating experience under our belt, if that makes sense. But I would agree with you, based on the changes to the ITC, based on the improvements that we expect in our EBITDA, based on the reductions in our debt service cost, all those are big tailwinds to getting us from being a cash user to a cash provider.

    是的。所以我們在這個指標上花了很多時間,我試著給你我如何看待它的背景。這是我們預測的新指標。顯然,我們長期以來一直在發布我們的 CFOA 以及投資和融資成分。但是當我們預測這個數字時,它並不是最容易預測的數字。它在整個業務中都有很多不同的變量,所有這些變量都涉及到這一點。我同意你的看法,沒有 ITC 和安全港,這是我們在 21 世紀投資的 2200 萬美元。然後可能有那個數字,還有一些最初在我們的 21 年計劃中。所以這些應該是好的順風。我想度過一兩個季度,但我們的目標是現金流為正,而且我們對接近正現金流更有信心。我希望我能在一兩個季度內更新人們的前景,因為我們只是獲得了更多的運營經驗,如果這有意義的話。但我同意你的看法,基於 ITC 的變化,基於我們對 EBITDA 的預期改進,基於我們償債成本的降低,所有這些都是讓我們從現金用戶變成現金用戶的巨大推動力現金提供者。

  • Michael Weinstein - United States Utilities Analyst

    Michael Weinstein - United States Utilities Analyst

  • Got it. One more question, just to get it on the record, what's the service life of a Gen 5 module now? And where do you think 7.5 is going to come in at?

    知道了。還有一個問題,只是記錄一下,現在Gen 5模塊的使用壽命是多少?您認為 7.5 會出現在哪裡?

  • Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

    Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

  • Yes. So I'll give you -- on 5, so there's a little bit -- there's always the -- what we're observing versus what we're seeing. So from the things that are out in the field that are at that median life, they are observed now right at about the 5 year, if not a little above that. The ones that we are forecasting, so the 5.0 that have gone out last year as well as will go out this year, are well over 5.5 and continuing to push forward. Our expectation, as we roll out Gen 7.5, is that we'll continue to extend that life towards 6 years as we get more experience in operational capability and our manufacturing, but our goal is to be moving towards at 6-year life.

    是的。所以我會給你 - 在 5,所以有一點 - 總是有 - 我們觀察到的與我們所看到的。因此,從該領域中處於中位壽命的事物來看,現在觀察到它們大約在 5 年左右,如果不是略高的話。我們預測的那些,即去年和今年將要發布的 5.0,遠遠超過 5.5 並繼續向前推進。當我們推出 Gen 7.5 時,我們的期望是隨著我們在運營能力和製造方面獲得更多經驗,我們將繼續將該壽命延長至 6 年,但我們的目標是朝著 6 年壽命邁進。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Our next question comes from the line of Paul Coster from JPMorgan.

    我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Paul Coster。

  • Paul Coster - Senior Analyst, Alternative Energy & Applied and Emerging Technologies

    Paul Coster - Senior Analyst, Alternative Energy & Applied and Emerging Technologies

  • So it sounds like you are growing at the pace at which you are investing capacity this year. Is that a true statement? Are you essentially leaving money on the table? Or is it -- could you be growing faster? What is the growth rate that you think the market can support?

    因此,聽起來您正在以今年投資產能的速度增長。這是真的嗎?你基本上是在把錢留在桌子上嗎?或者是——你能增長得更快嗎?您認為市場可以支持的增長率是多少?

  • Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

    Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

  • Yes. It's a great question, Paul. And now that we've got the balance sheet in place and giving us a lot more flexibility, we're very happy that we've secured this manufacturing space for our stack manufacturing. We're going to put our first line in for 200 megawatts. There's 160,000 square feet there. We can put 3 lines in place, and it's relatively capital efficient. So for the $50 million to $75 million that we put in, for another $150 million, we could get to a total 600 megawatts amount of fuel cells capacity, and that would get us towards 2 gigawatts of electrolyzer capacity. So I don't think that for the -- for our current list of orders and where we're at that we are limiting our acceptances based on our manufacturing capacity. But it is my full expectation that I will be back to KR and the Board sometime through the course of the year in timing when we add that additional capacity, so we don't run into that situation.

    是的。這是一個很好的問題,保羅。現在我們已經有了資產負債表並給了我們更多的靈活性,我們很高興我們已經為我們的堆棧製造確保了這個製造空間。我們將投入 200 兆瓦的第一條線路。那裡有 160,000 平方英尺。我們可以放置 3 條線,而且它的資本效率相對較高。因此,對於我們投入的 5000 萬至 7500 萬美元,再投入 1.5 億美元,我們可以獲得總計 600 兆瓦的燃料電池容量,這將使我們達到 2 吉瓦的電解槽容量。所以我不認為 - 對於我們當前的訂單清單以及我們所處的位置,我們正在根據我們的製造能力限制我們的接受。但我完全希望我能在一年中的某個時候回到 KR 和董事會,屆時我們會增加額外的產能,這樣我們就不會遇到這種情況。

  • Paul Coster - Senior Analyst, Alternative Energy & Applied and Emerging Technologies

    Paul Coster - Senior Analyst, Alternative Energy & Applied and Emerging Technologies

  • Is it conceivable, too, that you could do upside to 2021 revenues? Or is it just simply you've locked in now?

    是否也可以想像您可以提高 2021 年的收入?或者只是你現在鎖定了?

  • Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

    Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

  • Yes. I think, Paul, we've got the space. We're putting it in place. We've ordered the long-lead items, but they're really not going to be fully operationalized towards the back end of the year. So we are a bit limited on that. But as we start to move into '21 and we build the order book like we expect, that capacity will come online and support growth that year.

    是的。我想,保羅,我們有空位。我們正在把它落實到位。我們已經訂購了長周期項目,但它們真的不會在年底前完全投入使用。所以我們在這方面有點受限。但隨著我們開始進入 21 世紀,我們按照預期建立訂單簿,該產能將上線並支持當年的增長。

  • Paul Coster - Senior Analyst, Alternative Energy & Applied and Emerging Technologies

    Paul Coster - Senior Analyst, Alternative Energy & Applied and Emerging Technologies

  • Got it. Okay. And then just a little bit on the international markets, which still mystify us because so much of it is career and little else at the moment, but you've talked of other parts of Asia. And you've got a team now that's focused on it. You haven't mentioned Europe at all, which is -- seems to be a hot bed of hydrogen. Can you just give us some sense of what's happening? Where do you think your best prospects are? And are you going to build it and then they will come? Or are you going to follow your customers into the markets?

    知道了。好的。然後是關於國際市場的一點點,這仍然讓我們感到困惑,因為目前大部分是職業,其他很少,但你談到了亞洲其他地區。你現在有一個專注於此的團隊。你根本沒有提到歐洲,這似乎是氫的溫床。你能告訴我們發生了什麼事嗎?你認為你最好的前景在哪裡?你要建造它然後他們會來嗎?還是您要跟隨您的客戶進入市場?

  • Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

    Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

  • It's a little bit of -- a little different strategy depending upon the geography we're in. I was on the phone this morning at 7:00 a.m. bright and early with Azeez Mohammed's extended team. He's done a really good job of finding some industry expertise in market, especially in Europe, for some people that can help advise as we look for partners to build out. As you know, Paul, the amount of euros that are being invested, especially in Europe, especially around hydrogen as well, is a huge opportunity around our electrolyzer. But we think there's opportunities for our fuel cell technology there as well, maybe not everywhere where there is strong resiliency in the grid, but there's definitely opportunities for it.

    根據我們所處的地理位置,這有點 - 有點不同的策略。我今天早上 7:00 與 Azeez Mohammed 的擴展團隊通了電話。他在市場上尋找一些行業專業知識方面做得非常好,尤其是在歐洲,對於一些可以在我們尋找合作夥伴建立時提供建議的人來說。如你所知,保羅,正在投資的歐元數量,特別是在歐洲,特別是在氫氣方面,是我們電解槽的巨大機會。但我們認為我們的燃料電池技術在那裡也有機會,也許不是在電網有強大彈性的所有地方,但它肯定有機會。

  • So I think as you think about Europe, the countries that you think about are the ones you'd expect us to be working on: the Frances, the Germanys, the Italys, the Spains, the U.K.s. And we're putting resources on ground there to begin to engage. I think the Middle East is incredibly attractive. And I think parts of Asia are attractive as well. So I'm very hopeful that the resources that Azeez has been building out will be bringing opportunities for us, and I would expect you to be hearing about those over the course of the year. I think it's a huge opportunity.

    所以我認為當你想到歐洲時,你想到的國家就是你希望我們工作的國家:法國、德國、意大利、西班牙、英國。我們正在那裡投入資源以開始參與。我認為中東極具吸引力。我認為亞洲部分地區也很有吸引力。因此,我非常希望 Azeez 積累的資源能為我們帶來機會,我希望你能在這一年中聽到這些消息。我認為這是一個巨大的機會。

  • K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

    K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

  • And Paul, this is KR, to add to the 2 questions that you asked. They are the right questions you should be asking us. And I think we made it very clear, until we secured our balance sheet and stabilize financially, we were prudent in the use of our cash and we made sure that we sweated as much of the assets that we had already invested in the factory and got the maximum out of it. We reduced our product cost heavily. We invested in the future and build to that. And as soon as we secured it, starting in Q4, we have greenlighted both the factory expansion as well as, as you're seeing very visibly, put money into market expansion. And this is a long-lead market expansion so expect, starting this year, to see expansion both in the 50 United States as well as international.

    保羅,我是 KR,要補充你提出的 2 個問題。這些是您應該問我們的正確問題。而且我認為我們已經明確表示,在我們確保資產負債表安全並穩定財務之前,我們謹慎使用現金,並確保我們盡可能多地投入已經投資於工廠的資產並獲得最大的。我們大大降低了產品成本。我們投資於未來並為此而努力。一旦我們獲得它,從第四季度開始,我們就為工廠擴張開了綠燈,正如你非常明顯地看到的那樣,我們將資金投入市場擴張。這是一個長期的市場擴張,因此預計從今年開始,美國 50 多個國家和國際市場都會出現擴張。

  • Paul Coster - Senior Analyst, Alternative Energy & Applied and Emerging Technologies

    Paul Coster - Senior Analyst, Alternative Energy & Applied and Emerging Technologies

  • Got it. My last question then is you've seen one of your competitors really sort of go for gold. Every opportunity that's coming along of any scale, they're grabbing and they're unafraid of entering into joint venture partnerships and accepting third-party cash to scale fast. And now you could easily build another -- if it's only $50 million to $75 million to build the capacity in this big chunk, then you could easily double, triple, quadruple your capacity with the help of third parties in other regions. Is this a strategy that you are open to? Or is there -- you seem to be the embodiment -- in this space at the moment. I'm just trying to understand what your risk appetite is.

    知道了。那麼我的最後一個問題是,您是否已經看到您的一個競爭對手真的有點追求金牌。無論規模大小,每一次出現的機會,他們都在抓住,而且他們不懼怕建立合資夥伴關係並接受第三方現金以快速擴大規模。現在你可以很容易地建造另一個——如果只需要 5000 萬到 7500 萬美元來建造這個大塊的容量,那麼你可以在其他地區的第三方的幫助下輕鬆地將你的容量增加一倍、三倍、四倍。這是您願意接受的策略嗎?或者是——你似乎是那個時刻的化身——在這個空間裡。我只是想了解您的風險偏好是什麼。

  • K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

    K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

  • Look, I don't think -- given that we went out and our investor base, our management team, our leadership, our employees, for 10 years, worked on the technology that nobody could make happen in 100 years and we know how to do it, I don't think anybody can question whether we have the appetite for risk. We have the appetite for risk, and we take the most prudent risks that we need to take. We think the market opportunity is so large, it's not the first person who comes to the market and grab something out there. This is the transformation of an energy industry that's multitrillion dollars. And the factories we are building, unlike what other people do, are flexible to build fuel cells, to use any kind of fuel, to be able to do a carbon capture, to either produce hydrogen for the automotive market or electricity for the automotive market.

    聽著,我不認為——考慮到我們走出去,我們的投資者基礎、我們的管理團隊、我們的領導層、我們的員工,在 10 年的時間裡,致力於一項 100 年內無人能實現的技術,而且我們知道如何做吧,我認為沒有人會質疑我們是否有風險偏好。我們有風險偏好,我們會承擔我們需要承擔的最謹慎的風險。我們認為市場機會如此之大,不是第一個來到市場上搶東西的人。這是價值數万億美元的能源行業的轉型。我們正在建造的工廠,與其他人所做的不同,可以靈活地建造燃料電池,使用任何種類的燃料,能夠進行碳捕獲,為汽車市場生產氫氣或為汽車市場生產電力.

  • If you look at transportation, we cover both ends of it. If you look at electricity generation, we can do it at small utility scale with carbon capture. We can do it right at the site for resilience. If you look at industrial heat being replaced by electricity, we can electrify. So we have -- we are building factories that build these platforms where we don't have to wait for a market -- one market to develop within a time or not have our capacity, we can use that capacity for all these other features. So we think we are building a very prudent approach to how we build for the future. And we are marching to that and very comfortable with it. As Greg pointed out, now that we are focusing on the top line, we are going to make sure that we are not going to leave money on the table, to answer your question earlier, when the opportunity arises. But we want to be prudent about watching when the market develops as opposed to what people think it will develop into.

    如果你看交通,我們涵蓋了它的兩端。如果你看一下發電,我們可以通過碳捕獲在小型公用事業規模上做到這一點。我們可以在現場直接進行恢復。如果你看看工業用熱被電所取代,我們可以通電。所以我們 - 我們正在建立工廠來構建這些平台,我們不必等待市場 - 一個市場在一段時間內發展或沒有我們的能力,我們可以利用該能力來實現所有這些其他功能。因此,我們認為我們正在構建一種非常謹慎的方法來構建未來。我們正在朝著那個方向前進,並且對此非常滿意。正如格雷格指出的那樣,既然我們關注的是收入,我們將確保我們不會把錢留在桌面上,以便在機會出現時儘早回答你的問題。但我們要謹慎觀察市場何時發展,而不是人們認為它會發展成什麼。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Your next question comes from the line of Colin Rusch from Oppenheimer.

    你的下一個問題來自奧本海默的 Colin Rusch。

  • Colin William Rusch - MD & Senior Analyst

    Colin William Rusch - MD & Senior Analyst

  • Can you give us a sense of how much of the backlog in your expected 2021 revenue is coming from the international markets?

    您能否告訴我們您預計 2021 年收入中有多少積壓訂單來自國際市場?

  • Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

    Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

  • Yes. It's -- on the backlog, it's hard because they all price -- not price, the acceptance time frame is different. I think the way I'd answer it, we broke out how our revenues are today kind of internationally on that percentages. I would say, going into next year, the total year will look very similar to what the total year this year looked like on it. I would say, early in the year, my expectation is there are some large deals that will get shipped, that, that ratio may be a little bit tilted internationally. But as we go through the course of the year and complete some of our U.S. installations based on their size, I'd expect to get very close back to the ratio we had for this year.

    是的。這是 - 在積壓中,這很難,因為它們都定價 - 而不是價格,接受時間框架不同。我想我會回答它的方式,我們打破了我們今天的收入在國際上的百分比。我想說的是,進入明年,全年將與今年的全年看起來非常相似。我想說的是,今年年初,我預計會有一些大宗交易出貨,這個比例在國際上可能會有點傾斜。但隨著我們經歷這一年並根據其規模完成我們在美國的一些安裝,我預計會非常接近我們今年的比例。

  • Colin William Rusch - MD & Senior Analyst

    Colin William Rusch - MD & Senior Analyst

  • Okay. And then from a project-level capital perspective, can you give us a sense of where project capital is pricing out and what you're doing with kind of the available pricing power that, that enables? It seems to me that with interest rates where they're at right now, there's an awful lot of give in terms of the pricing model out to your customers.

    好的。然後從項目層面的資本角度來看,您能否讓我們了解一下項目資本在哪裡定價,以及您正在利用可用的定價權做什麼?在我看來,就目前的利率而言,就定價模型而言,您的客戶有很多選擇。

  • Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

    Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

  • Yes. So we're in that process now. We're working with a couple of providers on it. We definitely expect it to price inside of where it's been traditionally. That's partly driven by some of the improvements in our own credit outlook as well as continue to work with new providers to provide that capital. I'd tell you that the biggest issue remains not the quantity in capital, the biggest issue in the marketplace remains the tax capacity that's there. So while we were all very encouraged to see ITC extended, and I understand there's some bills out that would not only extend but increase, the most hope that I would ask from our friends who are in decision-making places was to help us create the capacity on that. We're doing very well on our process as we go through it. But it's an effort to make sure that we are securing that for the behalf of our customers. And given the amount of capital that's out there, bringing in more tax capacity would definitely make -- for the whole industry, make it easier.

    是的。所以我們現在正處於這個過程中。我們正在與幾個提供商合作。我們絕對希望它的價格低於傳統價格。這在一定程度上是由於我們自身信用前景的一些改善,以及繼續與新的供應商合作提供資金。我會告訴你,最大的問題仍然不是資本數量,市場上最大的問題仍然是那裡的稅收能力。因此,雖然看到 ITC 延長我們都非常受鼓舞,而且我知道有一些法案不僅會延長而且會增加,但我最希望向決策層的朋友們提出的要求是幫助我們創造的能力。我們在整個過程中做得很好。但這是確保我們代表客戶確保這一點的努力。考慮到現有的資本數量,引入更多的稅收能力肯定會讓——對整個行業來說,變得更容易。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Your next question comes from the line of Noel Parks from Tuohy Brothers.

    你的下一個問題來自 Tuohy Brothers 的 Noel Parks。

  • Noel Parks

    Noel Parks

  • Just a couple of things. As you're in the process of making the transition from the Bloom 5.0 to the 7.5 modules, just curious, could you just sort of talk about -- a little more about how the manufacturing transition happens? I know you said that the 5.0 volumes would probably be relatively unchanged while you ramp up 7.5. I was just curious, as far as actual implementation of the 7.5, do you -- or does it make a difference? Or are there advantages to rolling them out as upgrades in place to existing installations versus going into a brand-new installation just with all the 7.5s?

    只是幾件事。當您正處於從 Bloom 5.0 到 7.5 模塊的過渡過程中時,只是好奇,您能否稍微談談——更多地談談製造轉型是如何發生的?我知道你說過 5.0 卷可能會相對不變,而你增加 7.5。我只是很好奇,就 7.5 的實際實施而言,您有什麼不同嗎?或者將它們作為對現有安裝的升級而推出與僅使用所有 7.5 進行全新安裝相比是否有優勢?

  • Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

    Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

  • Yes. So Noel, it's a great question. So how we're operationalizing manufacturing of 7.5, that is part of the new facility that we're securing in California. So we are tooling that, all the tools we're buying are specific to the 7.5. We're doing it in a way in which we're not going to disrupt 5.0 because it's a great product, we continue to find ways to take cost out of it and it does what we need. But we'll operationalize 7.5. And once we figure out all the process of that, we will -- we can expand from 1 line to 2 and, ultimately, to 3 lines within that space.

    是的。諾埃爾,這是一個很好的問題。因此,我們如何實施 7.5 的製造,這是我們在加利福尼亞獲得的新設施的一部分。所以我們正在使用工具,我們購買的所有工具都是針對 7.5 的。我們正在以一種不會破壞 5.0 的方式進行,因為它是一個很棒的產品,我們會繼續尋找降低成本的方法,它可以滿足我們的需求。但我們將實施 7.5。一旦我們弄清楚了所有的過程,我們將 - 我們可以在該空間內從 1 行擴展到 2 行,最終擴展到 3 行。

  • But listen, the plan is -- we always are backward-compatible, in everything around our different rollouts of our technologies. And for the most part -- I'd say, for the complete part, our customers are indifferent on which technology that we ship. So it will be -- for us, we can continue to supply the 5.0. As 7.5 comes on, we'll begin bringing that into our installation process, and that will be really just part of our new installations to start with. And at some point, that will be the predominant technology out there, and that will be part of our replacement power modules that we'll bring into the fleet as part of our service offering.

    但是聽著,計劃是——我們始終向後兼容,在我們不同技術推出的所有方面。在大多數情況下——我想說的是,總的來說,我們的客戶對我們交付的技術無動於衷。所以它將是——對我們來說,我們可以繼續提供 5.0。隨著 7.5 的到來,我們將開始將其納入我們的安裝過程,而這實際上只是我們新安裝的一部分。在某個時候,這將成為主導技術,並且將成為我們更換電源模塊的一部分,我們將作為我們提供的服務的一部分引入車隊。

  • Noel Parks

    Noel Parks

  • Great. And just to touch, again, a little bit more on international expansion. You've talked about having a good success in hiring with your new International Business Chief -- Head in command. And any thoughts as far as what that might mean for sales cycles. I'm sure it wouldn't move the needle on the full company's numbers. But also, is there a point that we're going to be seeing pretty distinctive ramp-ups in sales and marketing expenses, maybe in advance of realizing the revenues from new partnerships and so forth?

    偉大的。再一次,再多談談國際擴張。你已經談到在招聘新的國際業務主管時取得了圓滿成功——總指揮。以及關於這對銷售週期可能意味著什麼的任何想法。我敢肯定,這不會對整個公司的數字產生影響。而且,是否有一點表明我們會看到銷售和營銷費用出現明顯的增長,也許在實現新合作夥伴關係等收入之前?

  • Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

    Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

  • Yes. Noel, hopefully, you saw -- we included the page, I didn't reference it in my comments, but it was posted. We're making investments not only to our R&D and our technology but to our sales and marketing team. And as part of what we lay out on our financial model here, we're going to improve our gross margins each year to get to -- from the 25% to 30% like we laid out at Analyst Day. We're going to increase our investment in -- that will show up as expense not only in our R&D but in our sales and marketing. Part of that, a big part of that, will be building out our presence internationally.

    是的。 Noel,希望你看到了——我們包含了這個頁面,我沒有在我的評論中引用它,但它已經發布了。我們不僅對我們的研發和技術進行投資,而且對我們的銷售和營銷團隊進行投資。作為我們在這裡制定的財務模型的一部分,我們將每年提高毛利率,從我們在分析師日制定的 25% 到 30%。我們將增加我們的投資——這不僅會在我們的研發中,也會在我們的銷售和營銷中顯示為費用。其中一部分,其中很大一部分將建立我們的國際影響力。

  • Listen, I think the right model to have will be one through partners. Similar to what we use with SK in South Korea. So that team is focused on finding partners for us to distribute our products through. And I wouldn't expect to build out a direct sales force internationally. But they'll be -- these are very senior people that are very steep in their geographies and their -- and can be very helpful to us to not only make introductions but to build the types of partnerships that we're going to need.

    聽著,我認為正確的模式將是通過合作夥伴。類似於我們在韓國使用的 SK。因此,該團隊專注於為我們尋找合作夥伴來分銷我們的產品。而且我不希望在國際上建立直銷隊伍。但是他們會——這些都是非常資深的人,他們在他們的地域和他們的領域非常陡峭——並且可以對我們非常有幫助,不僅可以進行介紹,還可以建立我們需要的合作夥伴關係類型。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Your next question comes from the line of Ben Kallo from Baird.

    你的下一個問題來自 Baird 的 Ben Kallo。

  • Benjamin Joseph Kallo - Senior Research Analyst

    Benjamin Joseph Kallo - Senior Research Analyst

  • Just a question about SK because I get it from investors. I'm trying to differentiate -- between the difference between what you're doing with them and what Plug is doing with them in their investment. And then just a second question is minutia. With the CO2, is there another revenue stream you can get from capturing that, like maybe -- like bricks or soda or something like that? Or what do you do with CO2 when you capture that?

    只是一個關於 SK 的問題,因為我是從投資者那裡得到的。我試圖區分——你對他們所做的事情與 Plug 在他們的投資中對他們所做的事情之間的區別。然後只是第二個問題是細節問題。對於二氧化碳,您是否可以通過捕獲它獲得另一種收入來源,比如磚塊或蘇打水或類似的東西?或者當你捕獲二氧化碳時,你會如何處理二氧化碳?

  • K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

    K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

  • Sure. So Ben, let me answer that question, and I'll keep it fairly short because we are running over time. And so first question on SK. Look, they are a large Korean conglomerate. They were in energy before they formed the partnership with us, and they have many lines of their energy business. And each one of those business units operate as independent businesses. SK E&C, with whom we have the partnership, is different from SK E&S that Plug signed the deal with; and b, that SK E&C are working on stationary power generation and scale in Korea and also with hydrogen electrolyzers and hydrogen fuel cells. And that relationship is strong and, going forward, very well. We are not exclusive to them. They are not exclusive to us. And -- but it's a very strong partnership. And the fact that they are signing up other deals shows that they are completely committed to the synergy transformation. And there are many other areas like the automotive there. It is not a play for us, and they need other players and partners.

    當然。所以 Ben,讓我回答這個問題,我會盡量簡短,因為我們已經超時了。所以關於 SK 的第一個問題。看,他們是一家大型韓國企業集團。他們在與我們建立合作夥伴關係之前就從事能源業務,並且他們的能源業務涉及很多領域。這些業務部門中的每一個都作為獨立的業務運營。與我們有合作關係的SK E&C與Plug簽署協議的SK E&S不同; b,SK E&C 正在韓國致力於固定發電和規模化,以及氫電解槽和氫燃料電池。這種關係很牢固,而且未來會非常好。我們不是他們獨有的。它們不是我們獨有的。而且 - 但這是一個非常強大的伙伴關係。他們簽署其他交易的事實表明他們完全致力於協同轉型。還有許多其他領域,例如那裡的汽車。這對我們來說不是一場比賽,他們需要其他球員和合作夥伴。

  • With respect to CO2, there is a 45Q federal subsidy that -- our understanding is the administration is going to improve upon for capturing carbon. And that carbon being provided for use in so many industrial cases, it's definitely an application. It will definitely -- for the early applications of CO2 capture, it will be there. But once CO2 capture becomes ubiquitous, the amount of CO2 generated will be very large. And at that point in time, you would have to sequester it rather than just utilize it. But in the early days, or at least a few years, there'll be lots of uses for that carbon dioxide to be utilized in industrial processes.

    關於二氧化碳,有一項 45Q 聯邦補貼——我們的理解是政府將改進碳捕獲。碳被提供用於如此多的工業案例,這絕對是一種應用。它肯定會 - 對於 CO2 捕獲的早期應用,它會存在。但是,一旦 CO2 捕集變得無處不在,產生的 CO2 量將非常大。在那個時候,你將不得不隔離它而不是僅僅利用它。但在早期,或者至少在幾年內,二氧化碳在工業過程中會有很多用途。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • We have time for one last question. Your final question comes from the line of Pavel Molchanov from Raymond James.

    我們有時間問最後一個問題。你的最後一個問題來自 Raymond James 的 Pavel Molchanov。

  • Pavel S. Molchanov - Energy Analyst

    Pavel S. Molchanov - Energy Analyst

  • I'll ask just one. This one's kind of high level. Cost of capital, as we see in -- across cleantech is extremely low. You have moved away from the Bloom Electrons model many years ago. But I'm wondering, would there be any appetite for reviving the recurring revenue nature of the business in terms of leasing out assets on your own balance sheet?

    我只問一個。這個水平有點高。正如我們所見,清潔技術的資金成本極低。多年前,您已經離開了 Bloom Electrons 模型。但我想知道,是否有興趣通過出租您自己的資產負債表上的資產來恢復業務的經常性收入性質?

  • Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

    Gregory D. Cameron - Executive VP & CFO

  • Pavel, it's good to hear you. And as the next GE capital person who had a $100 billion balance sheet of leasings in his last job, it's definitely something we think about. But I think as we prioritize our capital today, where we really want to make sure we're using it is for investing in our manufacturing capacity, in investing in our technology and investing in our brand and product management. I think there'll probably be a few areas, especially where we can't find sources of capital at a competitive basis, then I'd be willing to use some of our own balance sheet there to help facilitate maybe a new technology or a new application. But for the most part, given the amount of capital that's out there and where there's great expertise on that, I'll leave it for there. Our cost of capital wouldn't be one in which we'd look attractive given where other providers would be in the space.

    帕維爾,很高興聽到你的聲音。作為下一位在上一份工作中擁有 1000 億美元租賃資產負債表的 GE 資本人士,這絕對是我們要考慮的事情。但我認為,當我們今天優先考慮我們的資本時,我們真正想要確保我們將其用於投資我們的製造能力、投資我們的技術以及投資我們的品牌和產品管理。我認為可能會有一些領域,尤其是在我們無法在競爭基礎上找到資金來源的領域,然後我願意在那裡使用我們自己的一些資產負債表來幫助促進新技術或新的應用程序。但在大多數情況下,考慮到那裡的資金量以及在這方面有豐富專業知識的地方,我會把它留在那裡。鑑於其他供應商在該領域的位置,我們的資本成本不會是我們看起來有吸引力的成本。

  • And if anything, what we're finding, as we line up with some of our future providers, is they can take on some of the operating complexity that we've had here, right? We've had -- our teams that had been built over time help build different structures and things for our customers. I'm anxious to find people who we can leverage the partnerships knew that and need to take that talent and work with them to apply them on some other opportunities that we have in the company. It's a sure way of saying it's not something I don't think about, especially given my background. But I think, given our priorities, we're going to focus on growing the business from there and leave the leverage to people who have it.

    如果有的話,我們發現,當我們與一些未來的供應商合作時,他們是否可以承擔我們在這裡遇到的一些運營複雜性,對嗎?我們已經 - 我們的團隊隨著時間的推移而建立起來,幫助我們的客戶構建不同的結構和事物。我很想找到我們可以利用合作夥伴關係的人,他們知道並需要利用這些人才並與他們合作,將他們應用於我們在公司中擁有的其他一些機會。這是一種肯定的說法,這不是我沒有考慮過的事情,尤其是考慮到我的背景。但我認為,鑑於我們的優先事項,我們將專注於從那裡發展業務,並將影響力留給擁有它的人。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • That concludes Q&A for today. I now turn the call to CEO, KR Sridhar, for closing remarks.

    今天的問答到此結束。我現在請首席執行官 KR Sridhar 發表結束語。

  • K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

    K. R. Sridhar - Co-Founder, President, Chairman & CEO

  • Thank you very much. I know that we're running way over time. So I'll keep this very short.

    非常感謝。我知道我們已經趕不上時間了。所以我會保持簡短。

  • To our employees, to all our stakeholders who helped build 2020 into a tremendous year under these challenging circumstances, I want to say thank you, and to our shareholders, thank you for your continued support. If you just look at where we are as a company, we're so much stronger today. In any place where commercial customers are buying electricity for $0.09 or higher, we can economically compete with them.

    對於我們的員工,對於在這些充滿挑戰的情況下幫助我們將 2020 年打造成為非凡的一年的所有利益相關者,我要感謝你們,並感謝我們的股東,感謝你們一直以來的支持。如果你只看看我們作為一家公司所處的位置,我們今天要強大得多。在任何商業客戶以 0.09 美元或更高的價格購買電力的地方,我們都可以在經濟上與他們競爭。

  • Think about the strength of that value proposition, the resilient power. You don't have to worry about natural disasters. You don't have to worry about future cost of electricity coming to your grid. You don't have to worry about sustainability because we are future-proofing you. You can start with natural gas. You can go to biogas. You can get carbon capture. You can use hydrogen. You can -- if you electrify your vehicles, we offer the best option for you. That combined value proposition with not polluting the air, not using water, having electricity where you need it so you can control your electricity destiny, means that with our existing customers and with our new customers, we can at least approach a majority of the 48 United States, the contiguous United States, today. And that is room for growth.

    想想那個價值主張的力量,即彈性力量。您不必擔心自然災害。您不必擔心未來進入電網的電力成本。您不必擔心可持續性問題,因為我們正在為您提供面向未來的服務。你可以從天然氣開始。你可以去沼氣。你可以獲得碳捕獲。你可以使用氫氣。你可以——如果你給你的車輛通電,我們會為你提供最好的選擇。將價值主張與不污染空氣、不使用水、在您需要的地方提供電力以便您可以控制您的電力命運相結合,意味著對於我們現有的客戶和我們的新客戶,我們至少可以接近 48 個中的大多數美國,毗鄰的美國,今天。這就是增長空間。

  • In addition to that, what we're doing internationally helps us grow. So when we look to 2021, we are excited to be building more capacity. We're excited for our top line growth. And optimistic that we will have a great year and a great future going forward. We are extremely well positioned and couldn't be more thrilled with the momentum you're experiencing. Thank you very much.

    除此之外,我們在國際上所做的事情幫助我們成長。因此,當我們展望 2021 年時,我們很高興能夠建設更多產能。我們對我們的收入增長感到興奮。並樂觀地認為我們將擁有美好的一年和美好的未來。我們處於非常有利的位置,對您所經歷的勢頭感到無比興奮。非常感謝。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Thank you, everybody, for joining today. That concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

    謝謝大家今天的加入。今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連接。