Last week, Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) reported its strongest first quarter in the company’s history.
Total solar panel shipments during Q1 were 1,026.2 MW, consisting of 891.7 MW of external shipments and 134.5 MW to the Trina’s own downstream solar power projects.
This compares with total shipments of 1,098.8 MW in the final quarter of last year and 558.0 MW in the first quarter of 2014.
” We exceeded our own guidance as well as market expectations,” said Jifan Gao, Chairman and CEO of Trina Solar. ” We maintained our leading position as one of the largest solar companies in the world, with record shipments of over 1 GW during what is traditionally the weakest quarter of the year.”
Mr. Gao said he was confident strong global demand will be ongoing, resulting in greater growth in the solar industry for the remainder of this year.
For the current quarter, Trina expects to ship between 1,100 MW to 1,140 MW of panels, of which 150 MW to 170 MW will be used in the company’s PV projects. Trina forecasts 65 MW to 70 MW of solar projects will be connected to the grid during Q2.
By the end of this year, Trina Solar expects to achieve the following annualised capacities:
- Ingot production ~ 2.2 GW
- Wafer capacity ~ 1.7 GW
- PV cell capacity ~ 3.5 GW
- Module capacity ~ 4.8 GW
As at March 31, Trina’s cell capacity was 3.2 GW and its module production capacity was 4.0 GW.
Trina expects total PV module shipments for 2015 to be between 4.4 GW and 4.6 GW. Of that, 700 MW to 800 MW of solar panels will be shipped to the company’s downstream projects. Should that forecast be realised, Trina says total shipment volume for 2015 would be an increase of 20% to 26% from 2014.
In other recent Trina news, the company announced it had received the Innovation Award at the Mexico International Renewable Energy Conference (MIREC) for the company’s Duo-Max module.
A 72-cell frameless dual glass module, it features two sheets of heat-strengthened glass, PID and micro-crack resistance and is certified against sand, salt, mist, ammonia, alkali and hail. Trina says the Duo-Max generates more energy over its service life than a conventional module.
Founded in 1997 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2006, more than 7.4GW of Trina solar panels have been shipped to destinations including Australia; where they are a popular choice for residential solar power systems.
