Buyers seem a bit more enthusiastic than they did immediately following yesterday's earnings release, FSLR up $7.22 (+3.42%) at $218.11 and clawing back a chunk of yesterday's regular session loss of $9.51.
From The Motley Fool's Motley Fool Transcribing, July 31:
FSLR earnings call for the period ending June 30, 2024.
First Solar (FSLR -4.32%)
Contents:
Q2 2024 Earnings Call
Jul 30, 2024, 4:30 p.m. ETPrepared Remarks:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
OperatorGood afternoon, everyone, and welcome to First Solar's second quarter 2024 earnings call. This call is being webcast live on the Investors section of First Solar's website at investor.firstsolar.com. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the call over to Richard Romero from First Solar Investor Relations. Richard, you may begin.
Richard Romero -- Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasurer
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. Today, the company issued a press release announcing its second quarter 2024 financial results. A copy of the press release and associated presentation are available on First Solar's website at investor.firstsolar.com. With me today are Mark Widmar, chief executive officer; and Alex Bradley, chief financial officer.
Mark will provide business, strategy, technology, and policy updates, Alex will discuss our bookings, pipeline, quarterly financial results and provide updated guidance. Following their remarks, we will open the call to questions. 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.
It is now my pleasure to introduce Mark Widmar, chief executive officer.
Mark R. Widmar -- Chief Executive Officer and Director
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. Reflecting on the first half of 2024, we are pleased with our ongoing efforts to strengthen the fundamentals of our business. With solid operating and financial performance, selective incremental bookings, robust pipeline of demand, including a near -- a recently signed 620-megawatt module supply agreement subject to additional conditions precedent with a new U.S. customer that will be supplying power to a hyperscaler.
And investment in technology, R&D infrastructure, and manufacturing expansions, we continue to solidify our market position through strong execution. Our balanced approach to growth, profitability, and liquidity, combined with multiple technological and business model points of differentiation enable us to deliver value for both our customers and our shareholders. Beginning on Slide 3, I will share some key highlights for the second quarter. From a commercial perspective, we continued our disciplined approach to bookings.
Since our last earnings call, we have secured a net 0.9 gigawatts of bookings with an ASP of $0.316 per watt, excluding adjusters where applicable or $0.334 per watt, assuming the realization of adjusters where applicable and in each case, excluding India domestic sales. This includes a 0.4 gigawatt debooking related to a termination for convenience exercised by one of our European power and utilities customers who are selling a portfolio of U.S. development assets as referenced on our last earnings call and who is obligated to pay the associated contract termination payment. This brings our year-to-date net bookings to 3.6 gigawatts.
Our total contracted backlog now stands at 75.9 gigawatts with orders stretching through 2030. From a technology perspective, since our Q1 earnings call, we have established a new world record CadTel research cell with a conversion efficiency of 23.1%, commissioned new critical R&D infrastructure in Ohio, and remain on track to launch our CuRe program in Q4 of this year. Our CuRe program is expected to increase energy production in real-world conditions through improved module temperature coefficient, bifacial reality, and degradation rate. Additionally, we have announced the ownership of certain issued and pending patents related to the manufacturing of TOPCon crystalline silicon solar cells.
And while Alex will provide a comprehensive overview of our second quarter 2024 results, I would like to highlight our ability to deliver financially with second-quarter earnings per diluted share of $3.25 and a quarter-end net cash balance of $1.2 billion. Despite this strong execution and our success, delivering on the manufacturing technology, customer, and financial commitments, we must acknowledge that our industry faces varying degrees of increasing external uncertainties, particularly related to policy, supply conditions, and evaluations of strategic direction and capital allocation by certain large multinational companies. These will be discussed later during the call. Turning to Slide 4.
Our growth plans remain on track. The expansion of our Ohio manufacturing footprint has been completed and commercial shipments began as scheduled at the end of the second quarter. The completion of this phase expands our manufacturing capacity into the state by almost one gigawatt to nearly seven gigawatts. In Alabama, we expect to complete the installation of tools, complete plant certification, and commence production this quarter with the first commercial shipments from the plan expected in Q4 of 2024.
We are pleased with the speed at which we're able to construct, equip, and commission the 2.4 million square foot facility, achieving this in approximately 24 months from the investment decision. Our new Louisiana facility is also on track with the start of commercial operations expected in the second half of 2025. Furthermore, we commissioned the Jim Nolan Center for Solar Innovation earlier this month. This new research and development innovation center in Ohio is the largest facility of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.
The 1.3 million square foot facility includes a high-tech pilot manufacturing line, which we expect will allow us to produce full-size prototypes of thin-film and tandem PV modules in a manufacturing sandbox, freeing up our commercial production lots. In addition, we are on track to commission our new perovskite development line at our Ohio campus in the second half of 2024. Combined, these new facilities represent an investment of nearly $0.5 billion in American R&D infrastructure. We believe that thin-film research is critical for commercializing multi-junction tandem devices, which are anticipated to be the next disruptive innovation in the solar industry.
While the U.S. leads the world in thin-film PV under First Solar's stewardship, China is racing to close the innovation gap, and we expect that our strategic investment in R&D infrastructure will help us maintain our nation's strategic advantage in thin-film technology and position the next generation of disruptive, transformative solar technologies to be American-made. Turning to Slide 5. We continue to progress our technology road map and during the quarter, established a new world record CadTel research cell conversion efficiency of 23.1%....
....MUCH MORE
The company is sold out of current production through 2026 with a backlog of 78 gigawatts extending into 2030.
July 30: "First Solar Beats On Top and Bottom Lines But Only Maintains Full Year Outlook (FSLR)"
And as we said in July 2's ""First Solar’s Future Hinges on AI Demand and Election Outcomes" (FSLR)" (following an exquisitely timed overvaluation observation):
...The stock closed down another $5.98 (-2.69%) at $216.73, fully $90.04 below the intraday high less than three weeks ago.
First Solar will report their second quarter numbers in four weeks. We expect beats top and bottom and guidance to match or exceed the street. The Go-Go's are on standby for...
Sometime you get lucky.
