Recently, Trina Solar released its 2024 annual performance forecast and future development plan. The company has flexibly navigated various challenges such as supply-demand imbalances in the PV industry and escalating trade protectionism in overseas markets, thanks to its diversified business structure, profound technological accumulation, strong brand influence, and comprehensive global channel layout. Consequently, its module shipments have continued to grow compared to 2023. However, impacted by the continuous decline in PV module prices, the profitability of the company’s module business has declined, resulting in a full-year operating loss. Meanwhile, based on the principle of prudence, the company conducted impairment tests on long-term assets showing signs of impairment and made impairment provisions in accordance with corporate accounting standards, which also had a certain impact on performance.
Despite these challenges, Trina Solar accelerated the development of its overall solution business in 2024, maintaining its industry-leading position in various product segments such as modules, residential distributed systems, tracking mounts, and energy storage systems. The company’s distributed business maintained a high market share, and relying on its globally deployed system solution capabilities and global delivery service network, it continuously increased the overseas shipments and market share of its energy storage business.
Regarding the US factory transaction, Trina Solar and FREYR have completed the delivery as stipulated in the transaction agreement. The company has received 100millionincashfromFREYRandbeenissued150 million in senior notes and 15,437,847 ordinary shares. Additionally, the company has recovered a $50 million loan to TUM1, which was originally made as an upper-tier shareholder, paid by FREYR. This transaction is expected to have a positive impact on the company’s 2024 total profit and cash flow.
For the demand for PV modules in 2025, Trina Solar stated that with the continuous deepening of the global energy transition and the further enhancement of PV technology advancements and cost reductions in boosting the competitiveness of PV modules, the PV module market still has vast development potential. It is estimated that global demand for PV modules will rise above 660GW in 2025, with emerging markets such as the Middle East, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region showing particularly significant growth rates. The company will continue to leverage its competitive advantages in branding, channels, and global layout to further consolidate its component business foundation and accelerate its transformation from a manufacturer to a solution service provider.
In terms of capital expenditure, with the successful commissioning of the company’s 1GW battery module project in Indonesia, its existing domestic and overseas capacity is sufficient to meet the shipment plan for the entire year of 2025. Therefore, the company will continue to adopt a prudent capital expenditure strategy and has not planned any new capacity investment projects at present. In the future, the company will dynamically assess investment opportunities both at home and abroad based on market demand changes and industry trends to ensure efficient resource allocation.
Regarding globalization and localized operations, Trina Solar has always adhered to a globalization strategy, establishing a comprehensive global sales and service network system to provide excellent, convenient, and efficient smart optical storage energy solutions for global customers. Currently, the company’s business spans over 180 countries and regions worldwide, forming a strong global operational capability. Especially in the US market, the company has achieved comprehensive localized operations of its component factories through in-depth cooperation with local listed companies.
Recently, with silicon material and wafer prices experiencing certain increases, Trina Solar has established a sophisticated supply chain management system and forged long-term stable cooperative relationships with suppliers. The company effectively reduces raw material costs through centralized procurement and inventory accumulation, while closely monitoring market price dynamics and flexibly adjusting the outsourcing and self-sufficiency ratio of wafers to mitigate risks associated with raw material price fluctuations.
In terms of research and development, Trina Solar has also made significant progress. The company’s independently developed high-efficiency n-type fully passivated heterojunction battery modules and high-efficiency n-type double-sided i-TOPCon batteries have both set world records, demonstrating the company’s global leadership in PV technology research and development. In the future, the company will continue to increase its R&D efforts in PV cells and modules to maintain its technological leadership.
