第一太陽能 (FSLR) 2019 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to First Solar's Second Quarter 2019 Earnings Call. This call is being webcast live on the Investors section of First Solar's website at investor.firstsolar.com (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, today's call is being recorded.

大家下午好，歡迎參加 First Solar 2019 年第二季度財報電話會議。該電話正在 First Solar 網站的 Investors 部分進行網絡直播，網址為investor.firstsolar.com（操作員說明） 作為提醒，今天的電話正在錄音中。

I would now like to turn the call over to Adrianna Defranco from First Solar Investor Relations. Ms. Defranco, you may begin.

我現在想將電話轉給 First Solar 投資者關係部的 Adrianna Defranco。德弗蘭科女士，你可以開始了。

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us.

謝謝你。大家下午好，感謝您加入我們。

Today, the company issued a press release announcing its second quarter 2019 financial results. A copy of the press release and associated presentation are available on First Solar's website at investor.firstsolar.com.

今天，該公司發布了一份新聞稿，宣布了其 2019 年第二季度的財務業績。新聞稿和相關演示文稿的副本可在 First Solar 的網站investor.firstsolar.com 上獲得。

With me today are Mark Widmar, Chief Executive Officer; and Alex Bradley, Chief Financial Officer. Mark will begin by providing a business and technology update. Alex will then discuss our financial results for the quarter and provide updated guidance for 2019. Following their remarks, we will open the call for questions.

今天和我在一起的是首席執行官 Mark Widmar；和首席財務官亞歷克斯布拉德利。Mark 將首先提供業務和技術更新。亞歷克斯隨後將討論我們本季度的財務業績，並提供 2019 年的最新指導。在他們的發言之後，我們將開始提問。

Please note, this call will include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from management's current expectations. We encourage you to review the Safe Harbor statements contained in today's press release and presentation for a more complete description.

請注意，本次電話會議將包括涉及風險和不確定性的前瞻性陳述，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果與管理層當前的預期存在重大差異。我們鼓勵您查看今天的新聞稿和演示文稿中包含的安全港聲明，以獲得更完整的描述。

It's now my pleasure to introduce Mark Widmar, Chief Executive Officer. Mark?

現在我很高興介紹首席執行官 Mark Widmar。標記？

Thanks, Adrianna. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today.

謝謝，阿德里安娜。下午好，感謝您今天加入我們。

I'll begin by noting our second quarter loss of $0.18 per share. Despite this result, due largely to increased variable compensation expense associated with the company's short-term and long-term incentive plans and increased tax expense, which Alex will address, we've put a number of wins on the board during the quarter and are maintaining our full year earnings per share guidance.

我將首先指出我們第二季度每股虧損 0.18 美元。儘管有這樣的結果，主要是由於與公司的短期和長期激勵計劃相關的可變薪酬費用增加以及亞歷克斯將解決的稅收費用增加，我們在本季度董事會取得了一些勝利，並且正在維持我們全年每股收益的指引。

The Series 6 program remains on track, with improvement across all key manufacturing metrics. Q2 saw the greatest quarterly production run in the company's history.

Series 6 計劃仍在進行中，所有關鍵製造指標均有所改善。第二季度出現了公司歷史上最大的季度產量。

From a bookings perspective, we recorded our largest-ever individual order for Series 6 modules. And from a shipment perspective, we recorded record quarterly shipments. These highlights our reflection of the team's continued excellence in a very dynamic and changing business environment.

從預訂的角度來看，我們記錄了 6 系列模塊的最大單筆訂單。從出貨量的角度來看，我們記錄了創紀錄的季度出貨量。這些突出了我們對團隊在充滿活力和不斷變化的商業環境中持續卓越的反映。

Turning to the market. Catalysts driving increased PV penetration continued to point to growing global momentum and strong demand. On our last earnings call, we discussed our optimism for utility-scale solar growth driven not just by pure economics but by the groundswell of communities making strong actionable commitments to renewable energy. The recent uptick in government's commitments, coupled with growth and corporate activity, provide the underpinnings for secure and stable growth.

轉向市場。推動光伏滲透率增加的催化劑繼續指向全球增長勢頭和強勁需求。在我們上次的財報電話會議上，我們討論了我們對公用事業規模太陽能增長的樂觀情緒，這不僅是由純粹的經濟因素推動的，而且還受到社區對可再生能源做出強有力的可行承諾的推動。最近政府承諾的增加，加上增長和企業活動，為安全和穩定的增長提供了基礎。

In many regions, the solar industry has reached a cost inflection point relative to coal. In the U.S., the Energy Information Administration has identified a trend of younger and larger coal plants shutting down. And a study by Energy Innovations released in March showed that it would be cheaper to replace 74% of U.S. coal with new wind and solar. The study further found that replacing 94 gigawatts of existing coal plants with wind and/or solar would result in a 25% reduction in energy cost.

在許多地區，太陽能產業相對於煤炭已經達到了成本拐點。在美國，能源信息管理局已經確定了更年輕和更大的燃煤電廠關閉的趨勢。能源創新公司 3 月份發布的一項研究表明，用新的風能和太陽能替代 74% 的美國煤炭會更便宜。該研究進一步發現，用風能和/或太陽能取代 94 吉瓦的現有燃煤電廠將導致能源成本降低 25%。

In Europe, the first half of 2019 saw renewable energy outproduced fossil fuels for the first time. These are just some of the encouraging signs of sustainable growth we see.

在歐洲，2019 年上半年可再生能源產量首次超過化石燃料。這些只是我們看到的可持續增長的一些令人鼓舞的跡象。

Shifting to the domestic market. We've pointed out during our last earnings call that 3 states have adopted active mandates to reach 100% clean electricity standards, with over a dozen or more committed to nonbinding goals. As of today, 8 states enacted 100% clean and renewable energy goals and an additional 29 states, plus Washington, D.C., are targeting 9 binding energy targets.

轉向國內市場。我們在上一次財報電話會議中指出，3 個州已通過積極授權以達到 100% 清潔電力標準，其中有十幾個或更多州致力於實現非約束性目標。截至今天，8 個州制定了 100% 清潔和可再生能源目標，另外 29 個州以及華盛頓特區製定了 9 個具有約束力的能源目標。

Another trend gaining traction in the U.S. relates to battery storage. Deployment of grid-connected energy storage in the U.S. are expected to hit over 700 megawatts this year and are projected to reach 2.5 gigawatts by 2023. Moreover, the economics of these projects signal that, in certain regions today, clean and dispatchable energy can be made available for less than the cost of new natural gas.

在美國獲得牽引力的另一個趨勢與電池存儲有關。今年美國並網儲能的部署預計將超過 700 兆瓦，預計到 2023 年將達到 2.5 吉瓦。此外，這些項目的經濟性表明，在今天的某些地區，可以以低於新天然氣成本的價格提供清潔和可調度的能源。

We also continue to see growing momentum along corporates seeking to decarbonize their electricity. 2018 saw over 13 gigawatts of corporate PPA agreements, doubling 2017 levels, with new buyers and emerging markets tipping the scale.

我們還繼續看到尋求電力脫碳的企業的增長勢頭。2018 年企業 PPA 協議超過 13 吉瓦，是 2017 年的兩倍，新買家和新興市場的規模不斷擴大。

Since our comments last quarter, companies in France and Poland signed corporate power purchase agreement for large-scale solar, making a first for these nations.

自我們上個季度發表評論以來，法國和波蘭的公司簽署了大型太陽能企業購電協議，這在這些國家中尚屬首次。

We continue to solidify our position as a leading global provider of corporate solar solutions by providing clean or eco-efficient solar technology. On Tuesday this week, we just announced jointly with Microsoft that our Sun Streams 2 solar facility will power Microsoft's new energy-efficient data center being built in Arizona. We are thrilled Microsoft values our Series 6 technology, especially given its lower carbon footprint and superior environmental profile compared to crystalline silicon. We look forward to providing Microsoft cleaner solar electricity.

我們通過提供清潔或生態高效的太陽能技術，繼續鞏固我們作為全球領先的企業太陽能解決方案供應商的地位。本周星期二，我們剛剛與微軟聯合宣布，我們的 Sun Streams 2 太陽能設施將為微軟在亞利桑那州建造的新節能數據中心供電。我們很高興微軟重視我們的 Series 6 技術，特別是考慮到與晶體矽相比，它的碳足跡更低，環境更優越。我們期待為 Microsoft 提供更清潔的太陽能電力。

Earlier in the quarter, we announced that our Cove Mountain 2 solar power plant would support Facebook's Eagle Mountain data center in Utah through a PPA with Rocky Mountain Power. The project will be constructed near the 58-megawatt Cove Mountain power plant, which we announced last year, will also support Facebook's operations.

本季度早些時候，我們宣布我們的 Cove Mountain 2 太陽能發電廠將通過與 Rocky Mountain Power 的 PPA 支持 Facebook 在猶他州的 Eagle Mountain 數據中心。該項目將建在我們去年宣布的 58 兆瓦的 Cove Mountain 發電廠附近，也將支持 Facebook 的運營。

Continuing this trend, we announced last week that Kellogg's Australia and New Zealand signed a PPA with the Beryl Solar Farm developed and operated by First Solar in New South Wales.

延續這一趨勢，我們上周宣布，家樂氏的澳大利亞和新西蘭與新南威爾士州 First Solar 開發和運營的 Beryl 太陽能農場簽署了 PPA。

Finally, the utility scale market in the United States continues to thrive. Notably, we're seeing an increase in multiyear module sales agreements driven by our customers' need for pricing and technology certainty and our commitment to stand behind our contracts.

最後，美國的公用事業規模市場繼續蓬勃發展。值得注意的是，由於客戶對定價和技術確定性的需求以及我們支持合同的承諾，我們看到多年模塊銷售協議有所增加。

Starting on Slide 4, I'll provide an update on our Series 6 production metrics. As a reminder, we began production at our first Series 6 factory in April 2018. And over the subsequent 5 quarters, that continued to ramp production in the U.S., Malaysia and Vietnam. Leveraging our controlled replication process, we are operating 4 factories, which are matched in terms of key processes and which have produced 1.9 gigawatts year-to-date.

從幻燈片 4 開始，我將提供有關我們系列 6 生產指標的更新。提醒一下，我們於 2018 年 4 月在我們的第一家 Series 6 工廠開始生產。在隨後的 5 個季度中，美國、馬來西亞和越南的產量繼續增加。利用我們可控的複制流程，我們運營著 4 家工廠，這些工廠在關鍵流程方面相匹配，今年迄今已生產 1.9 吉瓦。

Reflecting on the significant progress we've made over a relatively short period of time, we are pleased with the Series 6 in terms of schedule, performance and cost.

回顧我們在相對較短的時間內取得的重大進展，我們對 Series 6 在時間表、性能和成本方面感到滿意。

On a fleet-wide basis, since April, we have seen significant operational improvements. When comparing performance for the month of April to July, meaningful improvement can be seen. Megawatts produced per day is up 16%. Capacity utilization has increased 12 percentage points to 94%. Adjusted for plant downtime, the fleet capacity utilization was 96%. Note, in support of our module efficiency road map in July, we increased the volume of engineering test articles, which adversely impacted capacity utilization by 1 percentage point. The production yield is up 2 percentage points to 91%. The average watt per module has increased 3 watts. And finally, the percentage of modules produced with antireflective coating has increased by 5 percentage points to 91%. The combination of our efficiency improvement program and increased ARC utilization has led to a significant improvement in the module bin distribution. In July, the ARC bin distribution between 420-watt through 430-watt modules represented 87% of production. Our best factory had ARC utilization of 95%, with 94% of the production volume at a 420-watt bin or higher. With 893 megawatts produced, Q2 continues our planned production ramp, and we have carried the momentum into July where we are experiencing our best-ever production month with 322 megawatts produced.

自 4 月以來，在整個機隊範圍內，我們看到了顯著的運營改進。比較 4 月至 7 月的表現時，可以看到有意義的改善。每天產生的兆瓦數增加了 16%。產能利用率提高了 12 個百分點，達到 94%。調整工廠停工時間後，車隊的產能利用率為 96%。請注意，為了支持我們 7 月份的模塊效率路線圖，我們增加了工程測試文章的數量，這對產能利用率造成了 1 個百分點的不利影響。生產良率提高2個百分點至91%。每個模塊的平均瓦數增加了 3 瓦。最後，使用抗反射塗層生產的組件比例提高了 5 個百分點，達到 91%。我們的效率改進計劃和提高的 ARC 利用率相結合，顯著改善了模塊箱分佈。7 月，420 瓦至 430 瓦模塊之間的 ARC 倉分佈佔產量的 87%。我們最好的工廠的 ARC 利用率為 95%，94% 的產量在 420 瓦或更高的箱中。第二季度生產了 893 兆瓦，繼續我們計劃的產量增長，我們將這一勢頭帶到了 7 月，我們正在經歷有史以來最好的生產月份，產量為 322 兆瓦。

On an individual plant level, all of the factories are performing well. At our second factory in Vietnam, the production metrics are ahead of plan and within 6 months of commencing operation, consistent with the fleet average. This is a direct result of learnings from prior factory ramps and the synergies realized by having a multi-factory site, which effectively leverages the WIP inventory buffers across 2 factories and creates additional equipment redundancy. We would expect to see similar benefits when we started up our second factory in Ohio, where construction is continuing according to schedule, the first tools installed in June.

在單個工廠層面，所有工廠都表現良好。在我們位於越南的第二家工廠，生產指標超出了計劃，在開始運營後的 6 個月內，與車隊的平均水平一致。這是從以前的工廠坡道中學習的直接結果，以及通過擁有一個多工廠站點實現的協同效應，該站點有效地利用了 2 個工廠的 WIP 庫存緩衝，並創造了額外的設備冗餘。當我們在俄亥俄州開辦第二家工廠時，我們預計會看到類似的好處，那裡的建設正在按計劃繼續進行，第一批工具於 6 月安裝。

Note as a highlight during our Q1 earnings call, our new Ohio factory will include additional capital, which among other improvements will target a 5% increase in the nameplate capacity. Depending on our ability to realize the targeted capacity increase, we will look to roll out this program across the fleet. We anticipate starting the production in early 2020 with the possibility of prequalified production in Q4 2019.

請注意，作為我們第一季度財報電話會議的一個亮點，我們在俄亥俄州的新工廠將包括額外的資本，其中包括將銘牌產能提高 5% 的目標。根據我們實現目標容量增加的能力，我們將尋求在整個機隊中推廣該計劃。我們預計將於 2020 年初開始生產，並有可能在 2019 年第四季度進行資格預審。

The progress we have made ramping our factories has been a key contributor, enabling the achievement of our Series 6 cost per watt objectives for the first half of 2019. While this is a significant accomplishment, there is tremendous amount of work still in front of us in order to achieve our cost per watt road map for the full year. As we noted in our April's earnings call, our Series 6 cost per watt is expected to drop approximately 30% from Q1 to Q4.

我們在擴大工廠方面取得的進展是一個關鍵貢獻者，使我們能夠在 2019 年上半年實現我們的系列 6 每瓦成本目標。雖然這是一項重大成就，但為了實現全年每瓦成本路線圖，我們仍有大量工作要做。正如我們在 4 月份的財報電話會議中指出的那樣，我們的 Series 6 每瓦成本預計將從第一季度到第四季度下降約 30%。

Turning to Slide 5, I'll next discuss our bookings activity. In total, we have 4.3 gigawatts of net bookings in 2019, including net bookings of over 2 gigawatts since the last earnings call. After accounting for shipments of 2.2 gigawatts in the first half of the year, including record quarterly shipments of 1.4 gigawatts in the second quarter, our future expected shipments are 12.9 gigawatts.

轉到幻燈片 5，接下來我將討論我們的預訂活動。總的來說，我們在 2019 年的淨預訂量為 4.3 吉瓦，其中包括自上次財報電話會議以來超過 2 吉瓦的淨預訂量。考慮到上半年 2.2 吉瓦的出貨量，包括第二季度創紀錄的 1.4 吉瓦季度出貨量，我們未來的預期出貨量為 12.9 吉瓦。

As it relates to the systems business, we converted 2 opportunities in Japan from our mid- to late-stage pipeline into 77 megawatts of bookings, with expected deliveries through 2022. With these projects, our footprint in Japan has grown to approximately 400 megawatts. We continue to believe in the strength of our portfolio of systems opportunities in Japan, and we could double our existing systems bookings there by the end of 2023.

由於與系統業務相關，我們將日本的 2 個機會從我們的中後期管道轉換為 77 兆瓦的預訂量，預計到 2022 年交付。通過這些項目，我們在日本的足跡已增至約 400 兆瓦。我們繼續相信我們在日本的系統機會組合的實力，到 2023 年底，我們可以將現有系統預訂量翻一番。

The remainder of our net bookings for the quarter were module-only bookings essentially, all for Series 6 product. International markets represented slightly more than 100 megawatts of the bookings. As I noted previously, we are seeing an increase in multiyear module sales agreements driven by our customers' need for certainty in terms of the technology they are investing in and the certainty that we will stand behind our contracts. Representative of this, we have secured our largest Series 6 agreement with a new customer to supply 1.7 gigawatts of deployment of projects across the U.S. We've also secured a 0.3-gigawatt booking with another new customer in the United States. Note, this is the first phase of the project with a similar size second phase included in our contracted pipeline and awaiting confirmation of conditions precedent to become a booking.

我們本季度的其餘淨預訂基本上是僅模塊預訂，全部用於系列 6 產品。國際市場的預訂量略高於 100 兆瓦。正如我之前提到的，我們看到多年模塊銷售協議的增加是由於我們的客戶需要確定他們正在投資的技術以及我們將支持我們的合同的確定性。代表這一點的是，我們與一位新客戶簽訂了最大的系列 6 協議，為美國提供 1.7 吉瓦的項目部署。我們還與美國的另一位新客戶簽訂了 0.3 吉瓦的訂單。請注意，這是項目的第一階段，我們的合同管道中包含類似規模的第二階段，並等待確認先決條件成為預訂。

We are particularly pleased with the strength of the bookings in the quarter despite the decision in June of the office of the U.S. Trade Representative to exempt bifacial panels from Section 201 tariffs. While we are able to contract through this headwind, it's important to note that the disappointing decision, which in our view has the effect of undermining the administration's efforts to secure a level playing field for U.S. solar manufacturing, introduces a new source of uncertainty going forward.

儘管美國貿易代表辦公室在 6 月決定免除雙面面板的 201 關稅，但我們對本季度的預訂量感到特別滿意。雖然我們能夠通過這種逆風收縮，但重要的是要注意這一令人失望的決定，在我們看來，它破壞了政府為美國太陽能製造確保公平競爭環境的努力，並為未來帶來了新的不確定性來源.

Since the last earnings call, related to certain customer and specific events, we debooked 0.3 gigawatts scheduled to be shipped in 2019 and 2020. These events included the combination of a customer's request to support their revised project development schedule and project size as well as settlement of an ongoing dispute with a customer, which originated over the potential sale of one of our systems projects. Although these events had an adverse impact to our previously contracted module backlog, given our robust pipeline, we were able to contract the volume with other customers. More importantly, we view the resolution as an investment in long-term customer relationship.

自上次財報電話會議以來，與某些客戶和特定事件相關，我們取消了計劃在 2019 年和 2020 年發貨的 0.3 吉瓦。這些事件包括客戶要求支持其修訂的項目開發計劃和項目規模，以及解決與客戶的持續爭議，該爭議源於我們的一個系統項目的潛在銷售。儘管這些事件對我們之前簽約的模塊積壓產生了不利影響，但鑑於我們強大的管道，我們能夠與其他客戶簽訂合同。更重要的是，我們將該決議視為對長期客戶關係的投資。

Turning to Slide 6. We show the forecasted supply plan for the second half of 2019 through full year 2021. As noted in the Q1 earnings call, we are effectively sold out through the remainder of 2019 and full year 2020. With the most recent bookings, 2021 is starting to book up relative to an anticipated supply plan of 6.5 gigawatts. For full year 2021, we booked and contracted volumes subject to conditions precedent representing approximately 60% of the supply plan. This leaves approximately 2.5 gigawatts to be booked in 2021. Note, approximately half of the remaining volume is anticipated to be needed for our self-development systems business. Assuming our systems business demand is level-loaded by quarter in 2021, we are largely sold out for third-party module sales in the first half of 2021.

轉到幻燈片 6。我們展示了 2019 年下半年至 2021 年全年的預測供應計劃。正如第一季度財報電話會議所述，我們在 2019 年剩餘時間和 2020 年全年都售罄。隨著最近的預訂，相對於 6.5 吉瓦的預期供應計劃，2021 年開始預訂。對於 2021 年全年，我們根據先決條件預訂和簽約數量，約佔供應計劃的 60%。這使得 2021 年的預定量約為 2.5 吉瓦。請注意，我們的自我開發系統業務預計將需要大約一半的剩餘量。假設我們的系統業務需求在 2021 年按季度按季度加載，我們在 2021 年上半年的第三方模塊銷售大部分已售罄。

We remain pleased with the bookings momentum and have increased confidence in achieving or exceeding our target 1:1 book-to-ship ratio in 2019 even as we continue to contract for deliveries over 2 years in advance.

我們仍然對預訂勢頭感到滿意，並對在 2019 年實現或超過我們的目標 1:1 預訂出貨比充滿信心，即使我們繼續提前 2 年以上簽訂交付合同。

Slide 7 provides an updated view of our mid- to late-stage bookings opportunities, which now totals 6 gigawatts DC, a decrease of 0.6 gigawatts from the prior quarter. When factoring the bookings for the quarter, 0.6 gigawatts, which were included in the opportunities in the prior quarter, our mid- to late-stage pipeline remains unchanged. Additionally, the pipeline includes 0.6 gigawatts of confirmed opportunities awaiting satisfaction of outstanding conditions precedents before being booked in the quarter.

幻燈片 7 提供了我們中後期預訂機會的最新視圖，現在總計 6 吉瓦直流電，比上一季度減少 0.6 吉瓦。考慮到本季度的預訂量（0.6 吉瓦）（包括在上一季度的機會中），我們的中後期管道保持不變。此外，該管道包括 0.6 吉瓦的已確認機會，等待滿足未決條件先例，然後在本季度預訂。

As a reminder, our mid- to late-stage pipeline is reflective of those opportunities we could feel would book within the next 12 months and is a subset of a much larger pipeline of opportunities, which totals 13.3 gigawatts DC, which increased 1.6 gigawatts from last quarter. This includes 0.8 gigawatts of opportunities in 2019 and 2020, which provide demand resiliency to our near-term bookings production, while the remaining 12.5 gigawatts of demand would be for modules delivered in 2021 and beyond.

提醒一下，我們的中後期管道反映了我們可能會在未來 12 個月內預訂的機會，並且是更大的機會管道的一個子集，總計 13.3 吉瓦直流電，比從上個季度。這包括 2019 年和 2020 年 0.8 吉瓦的機會，這為我們的近期預訂生產提供了需求彈性，而其餘 12.5 吉瓦的需求將用於 2021 年及以後交付的模塊。

In terms of geographic breakdown of our mid- to late-stage pipeline, North America remains the region with the largest number of opportunities at 4 gigawatts DC. Europe represents 1.5 gigawatts, with the remainder in Asia Pacific.

就我們中後期管道的地理分佈而言，北美仍然是 4 吉瓦 DC 機會最多的地區。歐洲代表 1.5 吉瓦，其餘在亞太地區。

In terms of segment mix. Our mid- to late-stage pipeline includes 1.9 gigawatts of systems opportunities across U.S. and Japan, with the remainder being module-only sales. The significant increase in systems opportunities is largely attributed to U.S. opportunities associated with the ITC Safe Harbor.

在細分市場組合方面。我們的中後期管道包括在美國和日本的 1.9 吉瓦系統機會，其餘為僅模塊銷售。系統機會的顯著增加主要歸功於美國與 ITC 安全港相關的機會。

We have also had significant success across our energy services business, with year-to-date bookings of over 1.6 gigawatts DC. Approximately 0.5 gigawatts was associated with the sale of development assets, with the remainder 1 gigawatts was contracted with projects developed by third parties. This brings our total energy services portfolio of assets on the contract to nearly 13 gigawatts globally.

我們的能源服務業務也取得了巨大成功，年初至今的預訂量超過 1.6 吉瓦直流電。大約 0.5 吉瓦與開發資產的銷售有關，其餘 1 吉瓦與第三方開發的項目簽訂了合同。這使我們在合同中的總能源服務資產組合在全球範圍內達到近 13 吉瓦。

Before turning the call over to Alex, I'd like to discuss recent developments related to the ongoing class action lawsuit, which was filed in 2012. As previously disclosed, in August of 2018, we filed a cert petition with the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the appropriate standard to determine loss causation. We identified various standards across several circuits and did not believe the standard used in the Ninth Circuit, which is a standard that will apply to this case, was appropriate. We were supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the Business Roundtable and other groups and filed an amicus brief with the court in support of our position. At the end of last month, the Supreme Court denied the cert petition. While we are disappointed with the denial, we continue to believe we have meritorious defenses and are vigorously defending this case. Also, as previously disclosed from following the results of the Supreme Court, the Arizona District Court ordered that the trial begin in January 2020.

在將電話轉給亞歷克斯之前，我想討論一下與 2012 年提起的正在進行的集體訴訟相關的最新發展。如前所述，2018 年 8 月，我們向美國最高法院提交了一份關於確定損失因果關係的適當標準的證明請願書。我們確定了多個電路中的各種標準，並且認為第九電路中使用的標準（適用於本案的標準）不合適。我們得到了美國商會、證券業和金融市場協會、商業圓桌會議和其他團體的支持，並向法院提交了一份法庭之友簡報以支持我們的立場。上月底，最高法院駁回了證書申請。雖然我們對這一否認感到失望，但我們仍然相信我們有值得稱道的辯護，並正在積極為這個案子辯護。此外，正如之前根據最高法院的結果所披露的那樣，亞利桑那地區法院下令審判於 2020 年 1 月開始。

I'll now turn the call over to Alex who will discuss our second quarter financial results and provide updated guidance for 2019.

我現在將電話轉給 Alex，他將討論我們第二季度的財務業績並提供 2019 年的最新指導。

Thanks, Mark. Before discussing the financial results, of course, I'd like to note that as we say from our previous earnings call, we anticipated that Q2 would be a breakeven to last quarter, and our second quarter financial performance was in line with those expectations. With the sale of the Beryl asset in Australia and the Cove Mountain and Muscle Shoals assets in the U.S., continued progress towards additional system sales and an increase in third-party module sales during the quarter, we remain on track to hit our financial objectives for the year.

謝謝，馬克。當然，在討論財務業績之前，我想指出，正如我們在之前的財報電話會議中所說，我們預計第二季度將是上一季度的盈虧平衡點，我們第二季度的財務業績符合這些預期。隨著澳大利亞的 Beryl 資產和美國的 Cove Mountain 和 Muscle Shoals 資產的出售，本季度額外系統銷售的持續進展和第三方模塊銷售的增加，我們仍有望實現我們的財務目標那一年。

With regards to the sale of the Cove Mountain and Muscle Shoals assets, these projects are not anticipated to begin construction until late 2019 and early 2020, respectively. However, as noted on the previous earnings call, given the opportunity to optimize valuations and reduce risk, we sold these assets prior to notice to proceed.

關於 Cove Mountain 和 Muscle Shoals 資產的出售，預計這些項目將分別在 2019 年底和 2020 年初開始建設。然而，正如之前的財報電話會議所述，鑑於有機會優化估值和降低風險，我們在通知繼續之前出售了這些資產。

In addition, in lieu of our traditional sales structure whereby we would perform an EPC and recognize revenue on a percentage of completion basis over the life of the contract, we have, in these cases, sold the project companies with a module sale agreement, and our customers will engage a third-party EPC provider. This structure has several advantages, including earlier cash collection and reduction of EPC risk exposure as we continue to evaluate the extent of our offering of this service.

此外，在我們傳統的銷售結構中，我們將執行 EPC 並在合同期限內按完工百分比確認收入，在這些情況下，我們通過模塊銷售協議出售了項目公司，以及我們的客戶將聘請第三方 EPC 供應商。這種結構有幾個優勢，包括更早的現金收集和減少 EPC 風險敞口，因為我們將繼續評估我們提供這項服務的程度。

Note that in our public filings, this also has the effect of removing the sold assets from our systems pipeline table, adding approximately 0.5 gigawatt of volume into the module backlog. With respect to the module backlog that will be updated in our forthcoming 10-Q, although this metric is always impacted by rounding given it is reported in gigawatts and billions of dollars, this quarter is also atypical circumstances which will imply a lower ASP for new bookings within the case. This is a result of 2 key drivers: firstly, with regards to the aforementioned Muscle Shoals and Cove Mountain projects, a change in the sales structure results in a great upfront margin and the approximately 0.5 gigawatt of additional module backlog with deliveries in 2020 and 2021 comes at ASPs lower than the previous average. This has not changed the overall project economics for these assets but has the impact of lowering the overall average ASP and the module backlog. Secondly, as Mark noted, we had 0.3 gigawatts of debookings with a certain customer since the last earnings call, which resulted in an ASP reduction associated with those volumes. Combined, these changes lower the overall average ASP in the backlog. The implied average ASP for the calendar quarter is not reflective of the pricing associated with new bookings, including the 2 gigawatts of net bookings since the prior earnings call. And to be clear, we're very pleased with our overall ASPs and new bookings in 2019.

請注意，在我們的公開文件中，這還具有從我們的系統管道表中刪除已售資產的效果，在模塊積壓中增加了大約 0.5 吉瓦的容量。關於將在我們即將發布的 10-Q 中更新的模塊積壓，儘管該指標總是受到四捨五入的影響，因為它以千兆瓦和數十億美元為單位報告，但本季度也是非典型情況，這意味著新產品的 ASP 較低案件內的預訂。這是兩個關鍵驅動因素的結果：首先，對於上述 Muscle Shoals 和 Cove Mountain 項目，銷售結構的變化導致前期利潤率很高，並且在 2020 年和 2021 年交付的額外模塊積壓約為 0.5 吉瓦平均售價低於之前的平均水平。這並沒有改變這些資產的整體項目經濟性，但會降低整體平均 ASP 和模塊積壓。其次，正如馬克所指出的，自上次財報電話會議以來，我們與某個客戶的取消預訂量為 0.3 吉瓦，這導致與這些數量相關的平均售價下降。綜合起來，這些變化降低了積壓的整體平均 ASP。該日曆季度的隱含平均 ASP 並未反映與新預訂相關的定價，包括自上次財報電話會議以來的 2 吉瓦淨預訂。需要明確的是，我們對 2019 年的整體 ASP 和新預訂感到非常滿意。

Turning to Slide 9. I'll start by covering the income statement highlights for the second quarter. Net sales in Q2 were $585 million, an increase of $53 million compared to the prior quarter. The increase in net sales is primarily a result of increased module sales as well as the closing of the sale for fully constructed Beryl project in Australia and the sale of our Cove Mountain and Muscle Shoals projects in the U.S. Although Q2 is a record shipment quarter for us, given the contractual terms associated with certain third-party module bookings as well as shipments to our systems projects, which have not been sold, we only recognized revenue on approximately 1/3 of those shipments.

轉到幻燈片 9。我將首先介紹第二季度的損益表亮點。第二季度的淨銷售額為 5.85 億美元，與上一季度相比增加了 5300 萬美元。淨銷售額的增加主要是由於組件銷售額的增加以及澳大利亞完全建成的 Beryl 項目的銷售以及我們在美國的 Cove Mountain 和 Muscle Shoals 項目的銷售雖然第二季度是創紀錄的出貨季度我們，鑑於與某些第三方模塊預訂相關的合同條款以及尚未售出的我們系統項目的發貨，我們僅確認了這些發貨中約 1/3 的收入。

On a segment basis, as a percentage of total quarterly net sales, our systems revenue in Q2 is 61% compared to 63% in Q1.

在分部的基礎上，作為季度淨銷售額的百分比，我們第二季度的系統收入為 61%，而第一季度為 63%。

Gross margin was 13% in Q2 compared to breakeven in Q1. The systems sale gross margin was 18% in the second quarter, and the module segment gross margin was 5%. As a reminder, module segment cost of sales is comprised of all third-party module cost of sale as well as Series 6 ramp-related costs. We experienced ramp-related costs of $18 million in the second quarter, which combined with Q1, is equivalent to the majority of the forecasted ramp charges for the year.

與第一季度的盈虧平衡相比，第二季度的毛利率為 13%。第二季度系統銷售毛利率為18%，組件板塊毛利率為5%。提醒一下，模塊部分的銷售成本包括所有第三方模塊的銷售成本以及與系列 6 斜坡相關的成本。我們在第二季度經歷了 1800 萬美元的坡道相關成本，加上第一季度，相當於今年預測的坡道費用的大部分。

Regards to the module segment, gross margin increased 18 percentage points from negative 13 in Q1 to positive 5 in Q2. This is achieved through a combination of increased shipments driven by increased Series 6 volume, lower ramp costs and lower cost per watt.

模組板塊毛利率從第一季度的負13增長到第二季度的正5，增長了18個百分點。這是通過增加系列 6 的產量、降低坡道成本和降低每瓦成本共同推動的出貨量增加來實現的。

Operating expenses were $86 million in the second quarter, an increase of $9 million compared to Q1. This was driven by increased variable compensation associated with the company's short-term and long-term incentive plans.

第二季度的運營費用為 8600 萬美元，比第一季度增加了 900 萬美元。這是由於與公司的短期和長期激勵計劃相關的可變薪酬增加所致。

We had an operating loss of $9 million in the second quarter compared to an operating loss of $77 million in the prior quarter. This was a result of the increased module and systems revenue and margin referenced earlier, partially offset by the increase in operating expenses.

我們第二季度的運營虧損為 900 萬美元，而上一季度的運營虧損為 7700 萬美元。這是因為前面提到的模塊和系統收入和利潤增加，但部分被運營費用的增加所抵消。

We took a mark-to-market charge of $4 million related to the fair value of certain interest rate swap contracts for some of our project assets in Japan and Australia. This is a timing impact based on movement of interest rates within the quarter, approximately half of which was recovered during the quarter through the increased sale value of the Beryl project. We expect the remainder to be recovered in subsequent quarters through increased project values recorded at the time of sale.

我們為我們在日本和澳大利亞的一些項目資產的某些利率掉期合同的公允價值收取了 400 萬美元的按市值計費。這是基於本季度利率變動的時間影響，其中大約一半在本季度通過 Beryl 項目的銷售價值增加而收回。我們預計剩餘部分將通過在銷售時記錄的增加的項目價值在隨後的幾個季度中收回。

We recorded tax expense of $12 million compared to tax benefit of $1 million in Q1. The increase in tax expense for the quarter is attributable to the jurisdictional mix of income as well as a discrete return to provision expense of $7 million. Combination of the aforementioned items led to a second quarter loss per share of $0.18 compared to a loss per share of $0.64 in the first quarter.

我們記錄了 1200 萬美元的稅收支出，而第一季度的稅收優惠為 100 萬美元。本季度稅收支出的增加歸因於收入的管轄組合以及 700 萬美元的離散回報準備金支出。上述項目的組合導致第二季度每股虧損 0.18 美元，而第一季度每股虧損 0.64 美元。

I'd like to turn to Slide 10 to discuss select balance sheet items and summary cash flow information. Our cash and marketable securities balance ended the quarter at $2.1 billion, a decrease of approximately $170 million from the prior quarter. Total debt at the end of the second quarter was $481 million compared to $571 million at the end of Q1. The reduction in debt is primarily due to the sale of the Beryl asset in Australia and the assumption by the buyer of the project-level debt. As a reminder, all of our outstanding debt continues to be project-related and will come off our balance sheet when projects are sold.

我想轉向幻燈片 10 討論選擇的資產負債表項目和匯總現金流信息。截至本季度末，我們的現金和有價證券餘額為 21 億美元，比上一季度減少約 1.7 億美元。第二季度末總債務為 4.81 億美元，而第一季度末為 5.71 億美元。債務減少主要是由於出售了澳大利亞的 Beryl 資產以及買方承擔了項目級債務。提醒一下，我們所有的未償債務仍然與項目相關，並且會在項目出售時從我們的資產負債表中扣除。

Our net cash position decreased by approximately $80 million to $1.7 billion. The decrease in our net cash balance is primarily related to capital investments in Series 6 manufacturing capacity.

我們的淨現金頭寸減少了約 8,000 萬美元至 17 億美元。我們淨現金餘額的減少主要與對 6 系列製造能力的資本投資有關。

Net working capital in Q2, which includes noncurrent project assets and excludes cash and marketable securities, decreased by $133 million versus the prior quarter. Change was primarily due to collections on receivables for systems projects, partially offset by an increase in our Series 6 module inventories. Cash flows from operations were $13 million in the second quarter.

第二季度的淨營運資本（包括非流動項目資產，不包括現金和有價證券）與上一季度相比減少了 1.33 億美元。變化主要是由於系統項目的應收賬款收款，部分被我們 6 系列模塊庫存的增加所抵消。第二季度的運營現金流為 1300 萬美元。

And finally, capital expenditures were $179 million in the second quarter compared to $149 million in the first quarter as we continued Series 6 capacity expansion.

最後，隨著我們繼續進行 6 系列產能擴張，第二季度的資本支出為 1.79 億美元，而第一季度為 1.49 億美元。

Continuing on to Slide 11, I'll next discuss the updated assumptions associated with our 2019 guidance. Firstly, our guidance continues to assume both a back-ended Series 6 module sale profile as well as a significant Series 6 cost reduction rig profile over the next 2 quarters. As Mark noted earlier, our Series 6 cost per watt is expected to drop approximately 30% from Q1 to Q4. We also continue to expect approximately 60% of our ramp-related and startup charges to have been occurred in the first half of the year.

繼續幻燈片 11，接下來我將討論與我們 2019 年指南相關的更新假設。首先，我們的指導繼續假設在接下來的 2 個季度中，6 系列模塊銷售情況以及 6 系列設備成本顯著降低。正如 Mark 之前指出的，我們的 Series 6 每瓦成本預計從第一季度到第四季度下降約 30%。我們還繼續預計，我們大約 60% 的斜坡相關費用和啟動費用將發生在今年上半年。

Secondly, while we continue to forecast the closing of multiple project sales, both in the U.S. and internationally in the second half of the year, timing between Q3 and Q4 remains uncertain and could have a material impact on the timing of revenue and earnings between the third and fourth quarters.

其次，雖然我們繼續預測今年下半年在美國和國際上的多個項目銷售結束，但第三季度和第四季度之間的時間仍然不確定，並可能對收入和收益的時間產生重大影響。第三和第四季度。

In regards to our U.S. project sales, we continue to be pleased with the progress made in the sales processes. But over the assets with offtake agreements with FCE, recent legislative developments in California have been positive while uncertainty around timing and value remains. As indicated on the previous call, should the market not reflect what we believe to be their appropriate risk profiles and values for the assets, we would look to refinance the assets and hold them on balance sheet through the period of uncertainty rather than selling at prices below what we believe to be fair value.

關於我們的美國項目銷售，我們繼續對銷售流程取得的進展感到滿意。但就與 FCE 簽訂承購協議的資產而言，加利福尼亞州最近的立法進展是積極的，而時間和價值方面的不確定性仍然存在。如上次電話會議所述，如果市場不能反映我們認為適當的資產風險狀況和價值，我們將尋求為資產再融資並將其在不確定時期保留在資產負債表上，而不是按價格出售低於我們認為的公允價值。

As a reminder, whilst unlikely should this occur, it could result in full year EPS approximately $0.50 over the low end of the guidance range.

提醒一下，雖然這種情況不太可能發生，但它可能導致全年每股收益超過指導範圍的低端約 0.50 美元。

Thirdly, we continue to highlight that our guidance does not reflect the potential for higher legal costs associated with defending the class action lawsuit, but these defense costs may exceed our insurance coverage limits. In addition, our guidance does not take into account the financial impact of any resolution of that lawsuit given the uncertainties of trial.

第三，我們繼續強調，我們的指導並未反映與為集體訴訟辯護相關的更高法律費用的可能性，但這些辯護費用可能超過我們的保險範圍限制。此外，鑑於審判的不確定性，我們的指導並未考慮該訴訟的任何解決方案的財務影響。

With these factors in mind, we're updating our 2019 guidance as follows: net sales guidance remains unchanged. Gross margin guidance has increased 50 basis points to a revised range of 18.5% to 19.5% due to higher upfront recognition of margin on the Muscle Shoals and Cove Mountain projects associated with the sales structure discussed earlier, offset by an increase in Series 6 ramp-related costs. Operating expense forecast has been lowered by $10 million to a revised range of $360 million to $380 million as a result of decreased plant startup expense, which is now forecast to be $55 million to $65 million, partially offset by higher variable compensation expense. The operating income guidance has been increased to a revised range of $290 million to $340 million as a result of the above changes.

考慮到這些因素，我們將 2019 年的指導更新如下：淨銷售額指導保持不變。由於與前面討論的銷售結構相關的 Muscle Shoals 和 Cove Mountain 項目的利潤率更高，被第 6 系列坡道的增加所抵消，毛利率指引增加了 50 個基點至 18.5% 至 19.5% 的修訂範圍-相關費用。由於工廠啟動費用減少，運營費用預測已下調 1000 萬美元至 3.6 億美元至 3.8 億美元，目前預計為 5500 萬美元至 6500 萬美元，部分被較高的可變薪酬費用抵消。由於上述變化，營業收入指引已增加到 2.9 億美元至 3.4 億美元的修訂範圍。

Full year tax expense is now forecast to be approximately $70 million, up from our previous estimate of $50 million. The increase is primarily due to a shift in jurisdictional mix of income and the previously mentioned return to provision expense. And earnings per share, net cash, capital expenditures and shipment guidance is unchanged.

現在預計全年稅收支出約為 7000 萬美元，高於我們之前估計的 5000 萬美元。增加的主要原因是收入的管轄權組合和前面提到的準備金回報率的變化。每股收益、淨現金、資本支出和出貨指引保持不變。

Finally, I'll summarize the key messages from our call on Slide 12. Firstly, we continue to be pleased with the progress on our Series 6 platform, including the significant progress across key manufacturing metrics. Secondly, our year-to-date bookings of 4.3 gigawatts continue to strengthen our future contracted position, and we're now approximately 60% contracted in relation to our 2021 supply plan. And lastly, we have increased our gross margin operating income guidance and maintained our full year EPS guidance range.

最後，我將總結我們在幻燈片 12 上的電話會議的關鍵信息。首先，我們繼續對 6 系列平台的進展感到滿意，包括關鍵製造指標的重大進展。其次，我們年初至今的 4.3 吉瓦預訂繼續加強我們未來的合同地位，我們現在與 2021 年的供應計劃簽訂了約 60% 的合同。最後，我們提高了毛利率營業收入指引，並維持了全年每股收益指引範圍。

And with that, we conclude our prepared remarks and open the call to questions. Operator?

至此，我們結束準備好的發言並開始提問。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Philip Shen with Roth Capital Partners.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 Roth Capital Partners 的 Philip Shen。

I have three. The first one is recall the slide that you guys put out back in Q4 of '18. I think it's Slide 12 where you had your average cost per watt. And Q1 was 30% above that; Q2, 5% above that; and then Q4 of '19 was expected to be 10% below average for the year. Can you guys just give us an update as to where things stand relative to that? Mark, I know that you talked about meeting your objectives and so forth. How does things stand relative to that? First. And then secondarily, as it relates to the bookings, how are bookings looking into 2022 with this bifacial exemption? Are customers starting to look more closely to book bifacial offerings by your peers? And then finally, can you give us an update on your view of -- your latest view on capacity expansion and, in general, maybe shareholder capital -- capital allocation in general?

我有三個。第一個是回想你們在 18 年第四季度發布的幻燈片。我認為這是幻燈片 12，您的平均每瓦成本。Q1 高出 30%；第二季度，高出 5%；然後預計 19 年第四季度將比全年平均水平低 10%。你們能不能給我們一個關於事情相對於它的最新情況？馬克，我知道你談到了實現你的目標等等。相對而言，情況如何？第一的。其次，由於它與預訂有關，2022 年的預訂情況如何？客戶是否開始更密切地關注同行的雙面產品預訂？最後，您能否向我們介紹一下您對產能擴張以及總體而言可能是股東資本的最新看法，以及總體上的資本配置？

All right, Phil, on the cost per watt, and -- what I did say in my prepared remarks was that we're happy with where we are right now. We met our first half commitment on the reduction. And as you remember, we had a pretty steep reduction from first quarter into the second quarter, so we're happy with the first half results. Still work to be done yet to get to the second half. A number of things. If you look at the first half, I mean, a lot of it was driven by -- utilization has come up significantly. We've driven up throughput improvements dramatically. Yields have improved significantly. They're all in the metrics that we reflected in the deck and I referenced it in my comments. And you can clearly see the benefit of that, it will drive down the cost per watt. As I look across what still needs to happen for the balance of the year to get to our cost per watt, it's -- there's no one silver bullet. It's one of many things. We've got labor that needs to come out. When we do the ramp process and starting up production, we threw a lot of labor into the manufacturing process that we're now in the process of taking out. So there's a pretty significant reduction of labor that should get down to the entitlement where we expect it to be. But in the early ramp phases, we threw labor into the process in order to continue to run operations at the highest throughput levels that we can. We've got some building material opportunity still that we've got to capture. We've got negotiations ongoing right now that -- to realize that benefit. And then on top of that, there's still -- we've got to get the yields up. Yields are at 91%. We've got to get those numbers up past 95%, closer to 97%, so there's some work to be done there. We still have a little bit of room to go on utilization. So we've got to see that and continue to drive throughput as -- to the highest possible optimization that we can. So there's a lot of levers, not one individual lever. But we're still confident with what we still need to do and our ability to get there. But a lot of the heavy lifting still to go. We have to get to the cost per watt for the second half of the year.

好吧，菲爾，關於每瓦特的成本，而且——我在準備好的發言中確實說過，我們對現在的情況感到滿意。我們兌現了上半年的減排承諾。正如你所記得的，從第一季度到第二季度，我們的降幅相當大，所以我們對上半年的結果感到滿意。下半場還有很多工作要做。很多事情。如果你看上半年，我的意思是，其中很大一部分是由 - 利用率顯著提高。我們極大地提高了吞吐量。產量顯著提高。它們都在我們反映在套牌中的指標中，我在評論中引用了它。您可以清楚地看到這樣做的好處，它將降低每瓦的成本。當我查看今年剩餘時間還需要做什麼才能達到我們的每瓦成本時，它是 - 沒有一個靈丹妙藥。這是許多事情之一。我們有勞動力需要出來。當我們進行坡道過程並開始生產時，我們將大量勞動力投入到我們現在正在淘汰的製造過程中。因此，勞動力的大幅減少應該歸結為我們期望的權利。但是在早期的斜坡階段，我們將人力投入到流程中，以便繼續以我們可以達到的最高吞吐量水平運行操作。我們仍然需要抓住一些建築材料的機會。我們現在正在進行談判——以實現這一好處。最重要的是，還有——我們必須提高收益率。收益率為 91%。我們必須讓這些數字超過 95%，接近 97%，所以還有一些工作要做。我們還有一點空間可以繼續使用。因此，我們必須看到這一點，並繼續將吞吐量提高到盡可能高的優化水平。所以有很多槓桿，而不是一個單獨的槓桿。但是我們仍然對我們仍然需要做的事情以及我們實現目標的能力充滿信心。但是還有很多繁重的工作要做。我們必須計算下半年的每瓦成本。

Bookings. We're very happy with bookings and where we are. And we can see from the slide that the bifacial exemption happened, I think, it was either June 12, or something along that line, the bookings that we were able to secure. We had a couple of 2 key new customers all -- both happened after that date. Not to say that there was an inflection point in discussions with the customer around ramifications around bifacial modules. I don't have any concern around our ability to compete with a bifacial module. It's just a discussion around where the economics lands. So to me, the bigger challenge we have if the exemption stays where it is, that it ultimately compromises economics and the realization of what we can capture relative to our competition. The spirit of what was put in place under the 201 was to allow companies to scale and to ramp manufacturing and to enhance overall cost competitiveness to deal with imported competitors. We made an investment -- a significant investment in our factory in Ohio for that very reason, coupled with the Tax Reform that was provided. And what we had hoped for would be allow our ability to ramp our new facility in an environment that wouldn't be under siege by a flood of imports. And I do think there is risk that, that could happen with the exemption as it is currently written, unless there's some form of a modification to it or either recision or some form of quota. I think it will create some challenges that we'll have to be able to deal with. So we're very disappointed in that decision, as I said in my comments.

預訂。我們對預訂和我們所處的位置非常滿意。我們可以從幻燈片中看到，雙面豁免發生了，我認為是在 6 月 12 日，或者類似的時間，我們能夠獲得預訂。我們有兩個關鍵的新客戶——都發生在那個日期之後。並不是說在與客戶討論圍繞雙面模塊的後果時存在拐點。我不擔心我們與雙面模塊競爭的能力。這只是圍繞經濟學落地的討論。所以對我來說，如果豁免保留在原地，我們將面臨更大的挑戰，它最終會損害經濟性以及實現相對於我們的競爭我們可以捕獲的東西。201 的精神是允許公司擴大規模並擴大製造規模，並提高整體成本競爭力以應對進口競爭對手。我們進行了一項投資——出於這個原因，我們對我們在俄亥俄州的工廠進行了重大投資，同時還提供了稅收改革。我們所希望的，是讓我們有能力在一個不會被大量進口商品包圍的環境中擴大我們的新設施。我確實認為存在這樣的風險，即目前所寫的豁免可能會發生這種情況，除非對其進行某種形式的修改或撤銷或某種形式的配額。我認為這將帶來一些我們必須能夠應對的挑戰。正如我在評論中所說，我們對這個決定感到非常失望。

Capacity expansion. If you look at 2021, yes, we highlighted in the slide, the committed supply plan is basically about 6.5 gigawatts. If you look at it, coupled with our systems business that we have, we anticipate to have in 2021, we have about 1, 1.25 kind of available capacity still in 2021. And we're focused on what we can do to potentially address that. We're very encouraged to hopefully see positive results in what we're doing in Perrysburg. As I indicated in our prepared remarks that if -- that plant will go into the ground with additional capacity, about 5% to 7% incremental capacity, which we'd say that at, a nameplate basis, we could drive somewhere in the range of 60 to 80 megawatts, somewhere in that range of incremental throughput if we're successful. And what we'd like to be able to do is to then replicate that across the balance of the fleet and continue to look for other opportunities for throughput. If you look at my prepared remarks, one of the things we highlighted was that the benefit we've seen in Vietnam is to have 2 factories co-located at 1 site, whether it's the leveraging of the WIP buffers, whether it's the redundancy that you have around the tool set across both factories. So we know we want to leverage that across Malaysia, Vietnam and the U.S. We've got the U.S. covered now, Vietnam is already addressed and then, we're in the process, but end of this year, we'll start the conversion of Malaysia. But then beyond that, we just want to continue to drive throughput because 2 things: efficiency and throughput are going to drive to our lowest cost per watt, and so we're very focused on doing that. We're continuing to evaluate options around how we can get additional capacity out of those factories. But we still have the optionality if we choose to convert KLM 1 2. And so that's another 1.2 gigawatts that could be put into the mix. My first choice would be to optimize the efficiency and the throughput leverage first and then move to an expansion or, I should say, a conversion to KLM 1 2. A lot of different options and things and scenarios that we'll have to evaluate, but very happy with the demand and supply backlog that we currently have and contracted that really almost through the next 10 quarters.

擴容。如果你看一下 2021 年，是的，我們在幻燈片中強調了，承諾的供應計劃基本上是 6.5 吉瓦左右。如果你看一下，再加上我們擁有的系統業務，我們預計在 2021 年擁有，到 2021 年我們仍有大約 1、1.25 種可用容量。我們專注於我們可以做些什麼來解決這個問題。我們很高興看到我們在佩里斯堡所做的事情取得積極成果。正如我在準備好的評論中指出的那樣，如果該工廠將以額外的產能投入地下，大約增加 5% 到 7% 的產能，我們會說，在銘牌的基礎上，我們可以在該範圍內的某個地方行駛60 到 80 兆瓦，如果我們成功的話，在這個增量吞吐量範圍內。我們希望能夠做的是在整個車隊的平衡中復制它，並繼續尋找其他吞吐量機會。如果你看一下我準備好的評論，我們強調的一件事是，我們在越南看到的好處是讓 2 家工廠共同位於 1 個地點，無論是利用 WIP 緩衝區，還是冗餘您擁有兩個工廠的工具集。所以我們知道我們想在馬來西亞、越南和美國利用這一點我們現在已經覆蓋了美國，越南已經得到解決，然後，我們正在處理中，但今年年底，我們將開始轉換馬來西亞。但除此之外，我們只想繼續提高吞吐量，因為有兩件事：效率和吞吐量將推動我們最低的每瓦成本，因此我們非常專注於做到這一點。我們正在繼續評估如何從這些工廠獲得額外產能的選項。但是，如果我們選擇將 KLM 1 轉換為 2，我們仍然可以選擇。因此，可以再加入 1.2 吉瓦。我的第一選擇是首先優化效率和吞吐量槓桿，然後轉向擴展，或者我應該說，轉換到 KLM 1 2。我們必須評估許多不同的選項、事物和場景，但對我們目前擁有的需求和供應積壓感到非常滿意，並且幾乎在接下來的 10 個季度都收縮了。

Your next question comes from Julien Dumoulin-Smith with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

您的下一個問題來自美銀美林的 Julien Dumoulin-Smith。

Maybe to just pick up where you just left off. In fact, why don't we talk a little bit, if you can, on this cost per watt trajectory, not just heading into 4Q? And I appreciate what a lift that may be already, how do you think about that over time here, especially as you think about scaling the megawatts here, too? I mean, just -- I want to focus on the cost per watt metric and where we can go from here. And I don't want to preempt too much guidance into '20 specifically, but trajectory-wise, how much more is there to go, sort of, overall, especially as you see these other products continue to have trajectory on cost themselves, be it bifacial or otherwise?

也許只是從你剛剛離開的地方開始。事實上，如果可以的話，我們為什麼不就每瓦成本的軌跡談談，而不僅僅是進入第四季度？我很欣賞這可能已經是一種提升，隨著時間的推移，你如何看待這一點，尤其是當你考慮擴大這裡的兆瓦時，也是？我的意思是，我想專注於每瓦特的成本指標以及我們可以從這裡走向何方。而且我不想在 20 年特別搶占太多指導，但從軌跡上看，總體而言，還有多少事情要做，尤其是當你看到這些其他產品本身繼續在成本上保持軌跡時，它是雙面的還是其他的？

Yes. I mean, it's just hard to go forward with too much details and specifics. So -- but what we said before, even with the commitment when we first launched Series 6 and then obviously, a significant cost reduction from Series 4, but that initial indication, which was about a 40% reduction for relative to our Series 4 price -- or cost, excuse me, but that wasn't necessarily an endpoint of a destination that we still have room to run. And the 2 most significant levers around that are continuing to drive up our efficiency. And then if we can drive incremental throughput across each of our factories, those will drive -- have some significant impacts on the cost per watt and enable us to continue to drive the cost down to create an advantage position on a cost position to our competition, which is the ultimate goal that we have. Clearly, it is challenging in terms of what we're seeing in the marketplace with some of our competitors and their cost, but then we think the final destination still will allow us to have an advantage position. There's other things we got to work through though that helps us get to that destination. One is the frame. We've talked before about the frame and even the design of the frame is actually adding cost to the module. So we've got to optimize against the frame. And there really is an optimization across the frame and the glass. So it's a combination of glass thickness and the associated frame, the packaging. Those 3 components, the 2 sheets of glass and the frame make up a very significant percentage of the overall build material. So how do we optimize against that and drive that down from where it is right now. And we've got a number of options around how to do that. And then we just need to continue to drive and improve our yields. So I would say the other one that's a little bit of a headwind right now is our yields. As I highlighted, we're at 91, and we need to drive that up. So it's not only driving the yields up. It's also where does scrap occur within the manufacturing process. And the more that we see the scrap loss in the back end of the factory, it just drives a higher cost because majority of the volume is already incurred at that point in time. So there's a lot of things that we need to do along those lines. But I don't think there should be a view that there's a -- there's not an additional rooms still to go and continue to drive towards the lowest optimal cost point. A lot of work though to make it happen, but we got to first figure out in the second half of this year and then carry it forward from there.

是的。我的意思是，很難推進太多細節和細節。所以——但是我們之前說過，即使我們在第一次推出系列 6 時做出了承諾，然後顯然是從系列 4 顯著降低成本，但最初的跡像是，相對於我們的系列 4 價格降低了大約 40% - 或者成本，對不起，但這不一定是我們仍有空間運行的目的地的終點。圍繞這一點的兩個最重要的槓桿正在繼續提高我們的效率。然後，如果我們能夠推動每個工廠的吞吐量增加，這些將推動 - 對每瓦成本產生一些重大影響，並使我們能夠繼續降低成本，從而在競爭成本地位上創造優勢地位，這是我們的最終目標。顯然，就我們在市場上看到的一些競爭對手及其成本而言，這是具有挑戰性的，但我們認為最終目的地仍將使我們擁有優勢地位。儘管這有助於我們到達目的地，但我們還需要解決其他一些問題。一是框架。我們之前已經討論過框架，甚至框架的設計實際上也在增加模塊的成本。所以我們必須針對框架進行優化。並且確實對框架和玻璃進行了優化。所以它是玻璃厚度和相關框架、包裝的組合。這 3 個組件，2 片玻璃和框架構成了整個構建材料的非常重要的百分比。那麼我們如何對此進行優化並將其從現在的位置降低。我們有很多關於如何做到這一點的選擇。然後我們只需要繼續推動和提高我們的產量。所以我想說另一個現在有點逆風的是我們的產量。正如我強調的那樣，我們已經 91 歲了，我們需要推動這一點。因此，它不僅推動了收益率上升。這也是製造過程中產生廢料的地方。我們看到工廠後端的廢品損失越多，它只會推動更高的成本，因為大部分數量已經在那個時間點產生。因此，我們需要沿著這些思路做很多事情。但我認為不應該有這樣一種觀點，即沒有額外的房間可以繼續朝著最低的最佳成本點前進。儘管要實現這一目標需要做很多工作，但我們必須在今年下半年首先弄清楚，然後從那裡繼續推進。

If I can just quickly ask on the incremental bookings for ASP. How firm is the market at this point? We saw some uptick in pricing for the first time in a while in the U.S. Obviously, bifacial is impacting things now. But just where are we on the incremental bookings. And just if you can talk a little bit on market pricing today as you've already alluded to for bifacial.

如果我可以快速詢問 ASP 的增量預訂。此時的市場有多堅挺？我們在美國看到了一段時間以來的第一次價格上漲。顯然，雙面打印現在正在影響事物。但是，我們在增量預訂中處於什麼位置。就像你已經提到的雙面一樣，只要你能談談今天的市場定價。

Yes. So look, I'm really happy with the 2 gigawatts or so -- north of 2 gigawatts on a gross basis of bookings. I mean the ASPs that we're realizing on the incremental volumes is consistent with what we saw in the first half. So if I look across the north of 4 gigawatts of bookings that we have year-to-date, that ASP is very firm and consistent really across that entire volume. And the really only variation you have is what year are you shipping it, right? So some of the bookings that we had in the first quarter still were 2020. Now we're all into '21. We've got some bookings out in '22 and even some that touch into '23. So the real variation that you see right now around ASP depends on the year which you're booking against. But we've been pretty, pretty pleased with how firm the market has been.

是的。所以看，我對 2 吉瓦左右感到非常滿意——在總預訂量基礎上超過 2 吉瓦。我的意思是我們在增量上實現的 ASP 與我們在上半年看到的一致。因此，如果我查看我們年初至今的 4 吉瓦預訂量，那麼在整個交易量中，平均售價非常穩定且始終如一。你真正唯一的變化是你在哪一年發貨，對吧？所以我們在第一季度的一些預訂仍然是 2020 年。現在我們都進入了 21 年。我們在 22 年有一些預訂，甚至還有一些到 23 年。因此，您現在看到的圍繞 ASP 的真正變化取決於您預訂的年份。但我們對市場的堅挺程度感到非常、非常滿意。

Yes. Julien, the one thing we talked about in the prepared remarks I want to make clear is the difference between what you're going to see in the Q when it comes through tomorrow in terms of the backlog reported there which, again, is rounded. It's shown in gigawatts and billions. So there's a lot of error that can happen in that rounding. But that's where we've actually been booking new bookings. So there's a couple of atypical events that happened, as we mentioned on the call, that impacted the number you'll see in the Q. And that was this customer dispute accommodation we had and the discrete events around Cove Mountain and Muscle Shoals. But relative to where we're seeing the market now for new bookings, so it's up, we're seeing bookings out with a freehand, and we're very happy with where we're seeing those.

是的。Julien，我們在準備好的評論中談到的一件事我想澄清的是，您將在明天的 Q 中看到的與那里報告的積壓工作之間的區別，這又是四捨五入的。它以千兆瓦和數十億為單位。因此，在該舍入中可能會發生很多錯誤。但這就是我們實際上一直在預訂新預訂的地方。因此，正如我們在電話會議中提到的那樣，發生了一些非典型事件，這些事件影響了您將在 Q 中看到的數字。這就是我們擁有的客戶爭議解決方案以及 Cove Mountain 和 Muscle Shoals 周圍的離散事件。但相對於我們現在看到的新預訂市場，所以它是上升的，我們看到預訂是徒手的，我們對看到這些的地方感到非常滿意。

Yes. And just -- and you got to remember, too. Just the natural cadence is going to be that, as we ship, we're shipping '19 volumes and we're replacing them with '21 or later volumes. You're going to see some natural erosion of that metric. But at the same time, you'll see margin expansion because the cost profile that we'll have in that horizon is going to be much more advantaged relative to what we're -- what our current cost of our Series 6 production is. So you got to look at it from both perspectives. But the metric in and of itself naturally is going to trend down over time.

是的。只是 - 你也必須記住。只是自然的節奏是，當我們發貨時，我們正在發貨 '19 卷，我們將用 '21 或更高版本的捲替換它們。您將看到該指標的一些自然侵蝕。但與此同時，你會看到利潤增長，因為我們在那個範圍內的成本狀況將比我們現在的情況更有優勢——我們目前的 6 系列生產成本是多少。所以你必須從兩個角度來看待它。但指標本身自然會隨著時間的推移而下降。

Your next question comes from Brian Lee with Goldman Sachs.

您的下一個問題來自高盛的 Brian Lee。

I'm going to try to squeeze in 3 here as well. I guess first off, in the past, you've been telegraphing some bookings moderation moving to the year. We're obviously not seeing it yet. So maybe just a quick update on your thinking around bookings trajectory as you move through 2019. Has that changed versus what you said before? Second, on the gross margins, you mentioned Cove Mountain and Shoals a bunch, Alex, and I know they're moving around in terms of buckets. But was that in the modules gross margin of 5%, or was it embedded in the systems gross margin? And then can you quantify what that impact was?

我也將在這裡嘗試擠入 3。我想首先，在過去，你一直在電報一些預訂適度移動到今年。我們顯然還沒有看到它。因此，也許只是在您度過 2019 年時快速更新您對預訂軌蹟的看法。和你之前說的有什麼不同嗎？其次，在毛利率方面，您提到了 Cove Mountain 和 Shoals 一堆，Alex，我知道他們在水桶方面移動。但這是在 5% 的模塊毛利率中，還是嵌入在系統毛利率中？然後你能量化這種影響是什麼嗎？

And then just last one I'll squeeze in here. On the 5% to maybe 7% nameplate capacity increase at Ohio, Mark, can you elaborate a little bit more? Is that a debottlenecking process? What amount of CapEx is involved? And then is it a quarter or 2 if you see success where you could then decide to roll it out to Malaysia and Vietnam?

然後就是最後一個我會擠在這裡。關於俄亥俄州 5% 到 7% 的銘牌產能增加，馬克，你能詳細說明一下嗎？這是一個消除瓶頸的過程嗎？涉及多少資本支出？如果您看到成功，然後決定將其推廣到馬來西亞和越南，是四分之一還是 2？

Yes. I'll do the bookings and the capacity and let Alex talk to the gross margin. But I've been real happy with the ability of our sales team to engage with customers and to get to an opportunity to book volumes that are sitting that far out in the horizon. But one of the things, as I said in the prepared remarks, is that there is a significant undertone of wanting to lock in to multiyear agreements, having certainty around the technology and ability to deliver the committed bin at which they're going to rely on and then design around and the fact that we'll stand behind the contracts, and there's not going to be repricing or anything else along those lines. And I think that's playing to our strength. The 2 large orders that we have for the first half of this year: one in Q1 and the other one here. And even the one that we said that there's a Phase 1 and a Phase 2 really is reflective of that. And it's really the confidence in developing those types of relationships with our partners and, obviously, a shared commitment and trust. And having gotten in certain situations -- been put in difficult situations by some of our competitors at various points in time. And given safe harbor and other things that are in front of us, nobody wants to be in that type of position where they have a partner that is unable to supply them or deliver against their commitments. So I think that's playing to our strengths. So as we have sort of given an indication of second half-weighted bookings, we clearly are ahead of where we thought we would be. There's still a lot of opportunity even yet for the balance of this year. As we said, we still are confident in our ability to get to at least the 1:1 booking ratio, which I would say we've got another 1.2 gigawatts or so, something in that range. We've got a couple of pretty significant deals that hopefully we can be able to bring across the finish line over the next few quarters. So I think we can get there. But yes, I've been very pleased with what we're seeing from that standpoint.

是的。我會做預訂和容量，讓亞歷克斯談談毛利率。但我對我們的銷售團隊能夠與客戶互動並有機會預訂遙遙無期的書籍感到非常滿意。但是，正如我在準備好的評論中所說的那樣，其中一件事是希望鎖定多年協議，對技術和交付他們將依賴的承諾垃圾箱的能力有確定性。繼續設計然後圍繞我們將支持合同的事實進行設計，並且不會重新定價或沿著這些路線進行任何其他事情。我認為這正在發揮我們的優勢。今年上半年我們有兩個大訂單：一個在第一季度，另一個在這裡。甚至我們所說的第一階段和第二階段也確實反映了這一點。這真的是對與我們的合作夥伴發展這些類型的關係的信心，並且顯然是一種共同的承諾和信任。在某些情況下，我們的一些競爭對手在不同的時間點將其置於困難的境地。鑑於安全港和擺在我們面前的其他事情，沒有人願意處於那種他們的合作夥伴無法為他們提供供應或履行承諾的位置。所以我認為這是在發揮我們的優勢。因此，由於我們已經給出了下半年加權預訂的指示，我們顯然領先於我們認為的位置。今年的剩餘時間仍然有很多機會。正如我們所說，我們仍然有信心達到至少 1:1 的預訂率，我想說我們還有 1.2 吉瓦左右，在這個範圍內。我們有幾筆非常重要的交易，希望我們能夠在接下來的幾個季度中完成交易。所以我認為我們可以到達那裡。但是，是的，從這個角度來看，我對我們所看到的感到非常滿意。

On the capacity side, it's really -- it's a debottlenecking. It's also an -- it's basically -- there is some CapEx but you think about where your constraint is in your production process and then adding a little bit of capacity there or resiliency, redundancy, and that creates incremental throughput across the remaining operations. And so there's a little bit of that. It's not a significant CapEx. And if we are successful, we can roll it out within a matter of a few quarters across the balance of the fleet. The only -- the real lead time issue is just to the extent there's capital requirement, it's just the lead time from the vendor to provide the capital, but it's a relatively short time from the point of decision to actually seeing the benefit of the throughput.

在容量方面，它真的是——這是一個消除瓶頸。這也是 - 基本上是 - 有一些資本支出，但你考慮你的限制在你的生產過程中，然後在那裡增加一點容量或彈性、冗餘，這會在剩餘的操作中創造增量吞吐量。所以有一點點。這不是一個重要的資本支出。如果我們成功了，我們可以在幾個季度內將其推廣到整個艦隊的平衡中。唯一的 - 真正的交貨時間問題只是在資本要求的範圍內，這只是供應商提供資金的交貨時間，但從決策點到實際看到吞吐量的好處是一個相對較短的時間.

Brian, so the question on gross margin. If you look at how we typically structure deals historically when we had an EPC agreement there's a profit pool associated with development, a profit pool associated with the module and then a piece with the EPC. Those are all lumped together into one large profit pool. It would then be recognized on a percentage of completion basis throughout the project life. What we've done here is we've sold the development project asset and then fully recoup our development cost and take our development fee upfront. And remember, if you look at the risk profile that we talked about at our Analyst Day 1.5 years ago, that's a higher margin piece of the business. And that's flowing through the systems segment. And then now we then have a module agreement with that project company to deliver modules, and that module revenue and margin will flow through the module segment over time. And so that's the split you're seeing here. We haven't broken out the exact delta, but that's how it's going to be recognized over time.

布賴恩，所以關於毛利率的問題。如果您看看我們在簽訂 EPC 協議時通常如何構建交易，就會發現與開發相關的利潤池、與模塊相關的利潤池，然後是 EPC 的一部分。這些都集中在一個巨大的利潤池中。然後將在整個項目生命週期內按完成百分比確認。我們在這裡所做的是我們已經出售了開發項目資產，然後完全收回我們的開發成本並預先收取我們的開發費用。請記住，如果您查看我們在 1.5 年前的分析師日討論的風險狀況，那是業務中利潤率較高的部分。這流經系統部分。然後現在我們與該項目公司簽訂了模塊協議以交付模塊，並且隨著時間的推移，模塊收入和利潤將流向模塊部分。這就是你在這裡看到的分裂。我們還沒有分解出確切的增量，但這就是隨著時間的推移它會被識別出來的方式。

Your next question comes from Michael Weinstein with Crédit Suisse.

您的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Michael Weinstein。

Can you -- given your visibility in the Safe Harbor demand and pricing, do you expect to extend the Series 4 lines through the first quarter of '20?

您能否 - 鑑於您對安全港需求和定價的了解，您是否希望將 4 系列產品線擴展到 20 年第一季度？

We're looking at Series 4 and opportunities for that. We have gotten requests from customers around availability of Series 4. You got to remember, for sure, right now we're running 2 factories in Malaysia -- excuse me, of Series 4. We refer to them as KLM 1 2 and KLM 3 4. 3 4 for sure is close -- is shutting down. We're going to ramp that up. We're going to get Series 6 production out of that product most likely by the end of 2020. It's a matter what do we do with KLM 1 2. And there's a couple of different things. There's some of them here domestically in the U.S. and we've got some pull from customers right now to do a few things. Safe harbor as well as -- we have some of the examples, which customers are actually having issues with damaged modules, hail damage, in particular and asking if there's a way, not for solar technology, but crystalline silicon technology, and asking if there's a way that we could probably help support their needs where they may actually replace some of the crystalline silicon and use a First Solar product. We only have Series 4 that can actually accommodate that type of request. There's other opportunities with pull-through of opportunities internationally for Series 4 in some key markets, so we're looking at that. And there's some synergies that we capture. Think of it as even purchasing power across the glass while the actual form factor of the glass is not the same between Series 4 and Series 6. There are some synergies along that. Aggregate purchasing power, volume breaks and the like that we could maybe get some additional leverage not only for better pricing on our cost on Series 4 but potentially better cost on Series 6. So there's a lot of options that are being looked at. We'll have more information around that probably in the upcoming guidance call that we'll do by the end of the year.

我們正在尋找系列 4 和機會。我們收到了客戶關於 Series 4 可用性的要求。您一定要記住，現在我們在馬來西亞經營 2 家工廠——對不起，是 Series 4。我們將它們稱為 KLM 1 2 和 KLM 3 4. 3 4 肯定是關閉 - 正在關閉。我們將加大力度。我們最有可能在 2020 年底之前從該產品中生產出 Series 6。我們如何處理 KLM 1 2 是一個問題。還有一些不同的事情。其中一些在美國國內，我們現在已經從客戶那裡得到一些拉動來做一些事情。安全港以及 - 我們有一些示例，客戶實際上遇到了模塊損壞、冰雹損壞的問題，特別是詢問是否有辦法，不是針對太陽能技術，而是針對晶體矽技術，並詢問是否有一種我們可能會幫助滿足他們需求的方式，他們可以實際替換一些晶體矽並使用 First Solar 產品。我們只有系列 4 可以實際滿足這種類型的請求。在一些關鍵市場上，第 4 輪在國際上還有其他機會，所以我們正在研究這一點。我們捕捉到了一些協同作用。可以將其視為整個玻璃的購買力，而玻璃的實際形狀因數在 Series 4 和 Series 6 之間並不相同。這方面存在一些協同作用。綜合購買力、數量突破等，我們可能會獲得一些額外的槓桿作用，不僅可以更好地定價我們在系列 4 上的成本，而且可能在系列 6 上獲得更好的成本。所以有很多選擇正在研究中。我們可能會在今年年底即將召開的指導電話會議中獲得更多信息。

Your next question comes from Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer.

您的下一個問題來自 Colin Rusch 和 Oppenheimer。

So last quarter, you talked a little bit about the project business and some inefficiencies there that you were working on fixing. Can you just give us an update on what's happening there and what you're able to accomplish in the last quarter?

所以上個季度，你談到了項目業務以及你正在努力解決的一些低效率問題。您能否向我們提供有關上一季度正在發生的事情以及您能夠完成的工作的最新信息？

Yes. So there's -- I think what we highlighted and I think it was in the last earnings call or maybe the one before that, we have put a new leadership team in place. And we are evaluating the kind of long-term relative competitive position of our own EPC offering and trying to determine what is the right strategy. I mean the view is very simple. If we can be best-in-class as it relates to our EPC execution, then similar to what we feel like we're best-in-class in O&M, we're best-in-class on our modules technology, if we can do the same with EPC, then that will be the path that we'll pursue. If we can't, then we'll have to look at options. As Alex indicated in his remarks, we have structured 2 deals here recently that we're only in the sale of development asset with a follow-on model sale agreement. We chose not to engage with EPC execution at this point in time, just given the uncertainty and the changes that we're going through until we can get it in our feet back underneath us. It's hard to sort of make additional commitments. As it relates to the existing projects and the execution against the existing projects, I think the team has made some very good progress getting where we need to be on cost and schedule. We still need to go -- we still need further to go in terms of our ability to meet and satisfy our customers' expectations, whether it's third-party EPC. For example, when we -- I would say that we haven't necessarily lived up to a standard that we want to live up to in terms of customer experience. And we got to do a better job from that standpoint. But look, there's a lot of moving pieces that we're looking at in evaluating a number of different options, and we'll love to give you more color when we have more details.

是的。所以有 - 我認為我們強調的內容，我認為這是在上一次財報電話會議或之前的電話會議上，我們已經建立了一個新的領導團隊。我們正在評估我們自己的 EPC 產品的長期相對競爭地位，並試圖確定什麼是正確的戰略。我的意思是視圖非常簡單。如果我們在 EPC 執行方面可以做到一流，那麼類似於我們認為我們在 O&M 方面一流，我們在模塊技術方面是一流的，如果我們EPC 也能做到這一點，那這就是我們要走的路。如果我們不能，那麼我們將不得不考慮選項。正如亞歷克斯在他的講話中指出的那樣，我們最近在這裡進行了 2 筆交易，我們只是在出售具有後續模型銷售協議的開發資產。我們選擇在這個時間點不參與 EPC 執行，只是考慮到我們正在經歷的不確定性和變化，直到我們能夠將其重新置於我們的腳下。很難做出額外的承諾。由於它與現有項目和對現有項目的執行有關，我認為團隊已經取得了一些非常好的進展，在成本和進度上達到了我們需要的地方。我們仍然需要前進——在滿足和滿足客戶期望的能力方面，我們仍然需要更進一步，無論是第三方 EPC。例如，當我們 - 我會說我們不一定達到我們希望在客戶體驗方面達到的標準。從這個角度來看，我們必須做得更好。但是看，在評估許多不同的選項時，我們正在研究很多動人的作品，當我們有更多細節時，我們很樂意為您提供更多色彩。

Great. And then just one quick follow up. Just if you look at the mid- to late-stage pipeline, how many new customers are in that? And how much of that is really existing customers that may try to leverage some of that potential new business into price reductions on existing contracts?

偉大的。然後只是一個快速跟進。如果你看看中後期管道，有多少新客戶？其中有多少是真正的現有客戶，他們可能會嘗試利用一些潛在的新業務來降低現有合同的價格？

I don't have the -- look, the 2 orders that we got for this quarter were new customers. I don't have that -- the exact mix between what sits in there in terms of existing customers versus new customers. I would argue though that there is a pretty high percentage of that pipeline that are customers that we've done business with. That's largely representative of what you see in the marketplace. It's the NextEras of the world, the EDFs of the world and others. I mean they're going to be key customers. And they'll be not only in our contracted volume but they'll be in our pipeline volume as well.

我沒有 - 看，我們本季度獲得的 2 個訂單是新客戶。我沒有那個——現有客戶與新客戶之間的確切組合。我會爭辯說，該管道中有相當高比例的客戶是我們與之有業務往來的客戶。這在很大程度上代表了您在市場上看到的情況。這是世界的 NextEras，世界的 EDF 和其他。我的意思是他們將成為關鍵客戶。它們不僅會出現在我們的合同數量中，還會出現在我們的管道數量中。

Our final question will come from the line of Travis Miller with MorningStar.

我們的最後一個問題將來自晨星的 Travis Miller。

You answered most of my questions, but I had a higher-level question. You mentioned batteries in your remarks there. And I'm just wondering how does that impact you guys? Is battery development is something that improves the number of megawatts you can sell? Or does it change pricing at all? Is it something that you might even eventually be involved in, in terms of offering full package?

你回答了我的大部分問題，但我有一個更高層次的問題。你在那裡的評論中提到了電池。我只是想知道這對你們有什麼影響？電池開發是否可以提高您可以銷售的兆瓦數？或者它會改變定價嗎？就提供全套服務而言，您最終可能會參與其中嗎？

Yes. So I mean, it's obviously clear. I mean as it relates to the battery, it clearly enhances the overall solar value proposition. We've talked about this before, as we've moved from energy-only contracts to, we refer to it as flexible solar generation, which allows you to effectively provide value beyond the energy, which could include ancillary services and we've been able to leverage that in some key markets and some opportunities. And we've done a number of studies, whether it -- we've done a study with Cal ISO and NREL. We've done a study with E3 and TECO around that, demonstrates kind of that flexible solar value proposition. And then it gets into dispatchable energy. And so that's the evolution that we see. And we do believe that you can get to a relatively high solar penetration in a number of key markets before you ultimately have to get to battery integration. But the market's starting to trend that way. We do think it sort of creates this disruptive opportunity where you can displace the deal that we won with APS and what we refer to as our Sun Streams 3 project. That was on all resource. We competed solar against gas peaker and other forms of generation, and we were able to win a portion of that RFP. So I think it just further enhances the overall value proposition.

是的。所以我的意思是，這顯然很清楚。我的意思是，由於它與電池有關，它顯然增強了整體太陽能價值主張。我們之前已經討論過這個問題，因為我們已經從僅能源合同轉變為，我們將其稱為靈活的太陽能發電，它使您能夠有效地提供能源以外的價值，其中可能包括輔助服務，我們一直能夠在一些關鍵市場和一些機會中利用這一點。我們已經進行了許多研究，無論是 - 我們已經與 Cal ISO 和 NREL 進行了研究。我們已經與 E3 和 TECO 進行了一項研究，展示了這種靈活的太陽能價值主張。然後它進入可調度的能量。這就是我們所看到的演變。而且我們確實相信，在您最終必須進行電池集成之前，您可以在一些主要市場中獲得相對較高的太陽能滲透率。但市場開始朝著這個方向發展。我們確實認為它創造了這種顛覆性的機會，您可以取代我們與 APS 贏得的交易以及我們稱之為 Sun Streams 3 項目的交易。那是在所有資源上。我們將太陽能與天然氣發電和其他形式的發電進行了競爭，我們能夠贏得該 RFP 的一部分。所以我認為它只是進一步增強了整體價值主張。

Now as it relates to technology, I mean the technology as it evolves right now is dominated by lithium ion. And it's really leveraged off of the scale. It's been created through EVs. And I see that as kind of the near term the most competitive solution that will be in the marketplace. So I wouldn't expect us to get into the battery side of it. Now on the power plant control side and the optimization and dispatching of the energy generation and optimizing that against the -- for example, what we've done with APS, there's a pricing tier structure that determines the energy value that's being generated and how do you optimize charging of the battery versus dispatching of the battery to optimize and to capture the highest value. Those are the things that we'd like to stay close to. We think that fits in well. We'll do O&M on that plant. We already have the power plant control, so it's more or less modification of the capability we already have that further enhances the value proposition that we can provide to the customer. So that's how we see. It's an important piece, it will evolve. Near term, I think you can see a quite high solar penetration before you have to get into dispatchable generation. But in some markets like California, the value proposition is a little bit different and more immediate need potentially in points of time throughout the year, that we'd see more battery installations there. You'll see some in Nevada, you'll see some here in Arizona. But a number of other markets are probably way too early in their evolution to really require it at this point in time.

現在說到技術，我的意思是現在發展的技術是由鋰離子主導的。而且它真的是從規模上利用起來的。它是通過 EV 創建的。我認為這是近期市場上最具競爭力的解決方案。所以我不希望我們進入它的電池方面。現在在發電廠控制方面以及能源生產的優化和調度以及針對 - 例如，我們對 APS 所做的事情進行優化，有一個定價層結構來確定正在產生的能源價值以及如何做您可以優化電池充電與電池調度，以優化和獲取最高價值。這些是我們想要接近的東西。我們認為這很合適。我們將對該工廠進行 O&M。我們已經擁有電廠控制權，因此或多或少地修改了我們已經擁有的能力，進一步增強了我們可以為客戶提供的價值主張。所以我們就是這麼看的。這是一個重要的部分，它將不斷發展。近期，我認為在你必須進入可調度發電之前，你可以看到相當高的太陽能滲透率。但在加利福尼亞等一些市場，價值主張略有不同，並且可能在全年的某個時間點出現更緊迫的需求，我們會在那裡看到更多的電池安裝。你會在內華達州看到一些，你會在亞利桑那州看到一些。但許多其他市場的發展可能還為時過早，目前還沒有真正需要它。

There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

目前沒有其他問題。今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連接。