SolarCity Deploys 156 MW in 2012, Beats Plan, Guides for 2013

Better than expected solar deployments in 2012 and a lift in the stock price.

Eric Wesoff January 03, 2013

Eric Wesoff

Editor-at-Large
Greentech Media

Eric Wesoff is Editor-at-Large at Greentech Media. Prior to joining GTM, Eric Wesoff founded Sage Marketing Partners in 2000 to provide sales and marketing-consulting services to venture-capital firms and their portfolio companies in the alternative energy and telecommunications sectors. Mr. Wesoff has become a well-known, respected authority and speaker in these fields.

His expertise covers solar power, fuel cells, biofuels and advanced batteries. His strengths are in market research and analysis, business development and due diligence for investors. He frequently consults for energy startups and Silicon Valley's premier venture capitalists.

In its first statement and guidance as a public company, SolarCity (SCTY), a provider of distributed energy, announced that the company deployed 156 megawatts in 2012 compared to a planned 146 megawatts. Here's the SEC filing.

The 156 megawatts deployed in 2012 shows growth of 117 percent over last year's 72 megawatts. Residential deployments were 85 megawatts for FY 2012, with 30 megawatts in the fourth quarter.

CEO Lyndon Rive, in a statement, guided FY 2013 deployments at 250 megawatts -- 190 megawatts of residential and 60 megawatts in the commercial sector. It's a healthy number and will serve as testament to the sales team at the firm if executed upon.

SolarCity's share price is trading at $13.02, close to its record high as a three-week-old public firm. SolarCity had originally intended to price its IPO at $13 to $15 but lowered the price to $8 per share.

We covered SolarCity's IPO pricing travails here. Check out our interview with SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive here and here.

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