SolarEdge sees U.S. residential demand ‘relatively flat’ this year

Asked during the Wells Fargo Clean Energy Symposium to comment on demand trends being seen in the U.S. residential market, SolarEdge CFO Ronen Faier replied, according to a transcript of the event: "So maybe I was a little bit criticized because of it, we don’t see the U.S. market being very, I would say, fast-growing market this year, not to say maybe that it will be relatively flat. We do not see a big chance that it will slow down, but we do not see it as a high-growth market. We do not have yet a lot of data about February and March, of course, and given where we are in the quarter, I’m not sure that I can comment too much. But our view has not changed dramatically. And this is coming from an analysis of the market… the IRA, we believe, creates a little bit of a counterproductive impacted the very first year because until now, when the ITC used to go down year-over-year, you knew that if you’re waiting for the next year, you will get lower tax credit. So there was an incentive to make a quick decision. Now with the ITC set for the next 10 years, interest rates being high, and I believe that most people believe that they will not be as high. And electricity price is not hiking so quickly — the most interesting thing to do is actually to wait and see what happens. And therefore, we do not see a lot of growth. And the last thing, by the way, the NEM 3.0 that does add a little bit more a certainty to the market. So that’s why we believe that it’s going to be flattish to a small growth market this year. We’ll be happy to see that we’re wrong. But at least now on this 36% of our overall business, because 64% is happening outside of the United States, we take a very cautious approach."