Array Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARRY) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Kevin Hostetler: You’re correct. It’ll still take a quarter of our standard lead time, right? So, what we’re trying to be really mindful of us here is that we’re not preordering and pre supposing all the stuff get gets cleaned up by a particular month, and therefore, over investing in our supply chain, right? So, we’re being very mindful. We’re communicating with these customers, literally on a daily basis, as some of them are going out for additional PPAs, we’re truly having calls every other day to get an update from them on are they successful? And I could only say that in every case that I’m aware of that I could think of in these communications, they’re confident that they’re going to get that revised PPA, but they’re just saying these are negotiations that that take longer than a couple of weeks, right?

And the way one of the large developers put it to me is, but fundamentally, the end utilities that are purchasing this this energy, have previously made commitments to their customers and to their shareholders of hitting very particular targets in terms of a percentage of renewable energy. And we all know that the demand for energy is increasing. We all know that that a definitively lower carbon source of energy that customers are looking for. So, again, we feel really good about those fundamentals. And we feel good that they need this renewable energy. So, in all cases, we’re hearing that they are having very favorable discussions in terms of renegotiating these PPAs. It’s just a timing issue. And again, that’s — almost a verbatim quote from one of our large developers who’s in this very position right now.

Donovan Schafer: Okay. And then as a follow-up, I know in this space, there can be very large projects, there can be a lot of lumpiness, kind of in this business in general. But I have to ask just because we have had some other equipment providers that serve the US Utility scale market, whether it’s trackers or other kind of equipment as I showed some sequential improvement this quarter. And so do you think that comes down to just lumpiness and maybe kind of related if you can comment on it? Is it may be a case? Could we see something here, like, what we saw in Q1 where you were almost sort of being punish for having high domestic content and not like your if you’re — not high domestic content, you’re not compromising on price, then maybe that leads to more customers kind of holding out again to get the next incremental piece of guidance. Are those any factors anything you can share there would be very helpful.

Kevin Hostetler: I think it’s a consistent set of factors that we’re seeing as we’re really focused on that domestic content customers. Those are the same customers. And that’s why we’ve identified the $300 million sitting on the sideline that we had hoped would have converted. But we all cannot control the pace with which the government is providing this level of clarity that’s needed to go forward. We all had hoped it was hitting their previous deadline, which was October, but October, obviously, has come and gone without any clarity. And now they the latest update is that we may hear bits and pieces by the end of the year, but likely not the full story. And again, as I just alluded to, so what you have is you have a couple of customers asking for quotes with a lot of, I should say, leeway or liberty on our side is that, well, we could give you this at this price given this definition, but we’re not going to guarantee that that’ll be the final definition.

And some of those customers are saying that’s okay to me. I need to get going, right? But that’s only — of the $320 million, that’s $35,000,000 only, right? So, it’s a small percentage yet that are moving forward despite a lack of clarity, right? And again, I’d caution people to not think about bookings on a quarterly basis as you did in Q1, and then Q2, we had a great level of bookings that surprised to the upside significantly. That lumpiness and that seesaw, I think, is going to continue for a couple of quarters.

Operator: Thank you, sir. The next question we have comes from Tristan Richardson of Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Tristan Richardson: Hi. Good evening, guys. Appreciate all the comments on what you’re seeing in the market. Maybe if you could just help us out from an update on average project size either in the pipeline today, or at least in the backlog either from a megawatts perspective or even a dollar perspective?

Nipul Patel: Hey Tristan, its Nipul. On average in our order book and backlog, it’s about a 150 megawatts.

Tristan Richardson: Great. That’s helpful. And then and then maybe just, are there any other characteristics kind of where you’re seeing this dynamic with respect to developers, is it for smaller projects, or larger projects that are perhaps a little bit more dependent on financing, et cetera? Is this just a — or is this more broad based?

Kevin Hostetler: It is broad based. So, as you know, we do quite a bit of work in the C&I space as well. We believe we’re the largest provider of trackers to the C&I space. And while we’ve been experiencing this, for now, a couple of quarters on the utility scale, we’re also seeing it in the C&I space in the last quarter. It’s really coming to light up the delays. So, I think it’s something that’s more broad based. And I don’t think anyone’s immune from this in the industry. So, if anyone out there is saying, look, this isn’t happening to us at all, I don’t believe that. It’s consistent. I’m constantly on the phone with developers and our partners, and it’s a consistent theme that I’m hearing in the marketplace. It’s not an Array issue, to be clear.

Tristan Richardson: I appreciate it, Kevin. And thank you, Nipul. All the best.