Canadian Solar Inc.

Canadian Solar's fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. My name is Melissa and I will be your operator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a Q&A session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the call over to Wynna Wong, Head of Investor Relations at Canadian Solar. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and welcome everyone to Canadian Solar's fourth quarter 2023 conference call. Please note that today's conference call is accompanied with slides which are available on Canadian Solar's Investor Relations website within the event and presentation section. Joining us today are Dr. Sean Chu, Chairman and CEO, Yan Zhuang, President of Canadian Solar's subsidiary CSI Solar, Dr. Huifeng Chen, Senior VP and CFO, and Ismael Guerrero, Corporate VP and President of Canadian Solar Subsidiary Recurrent Energy. All company executives will participate in the Q&A session after management's formal remarks. On this call, Sean will go over some key messages for the quarter. Yan and Ismael will review business highlights for CSI Solar and Recurrent Energy, respectively. And Huifeng will go through the financial results list. Sean will conclude with prepared remarks with the business outlook, after which we will have time for questions. Before we begin, I would like to remind listeners that management's prepared remarks today, as well as their answers to questions, will contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. The company claims protection under the Safe Harbor for forward-looking statements that is contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ from management's current expectations. Any projections of a company's future performance represent management estimates as of today. Canadian Solar assumes no obligation to update these projections in the future unless otherwise required by applicable law. A more detailed discussion of risks and uncertainties can be found in the company's annual report on Form 20-S, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Management's prepared remarks will be presented within the requirements of FTC Regulation G regarding generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. Some financial information presented during the call will be provided on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis. By disclosing certain non-GAAP information, management intends to provide investors with additional information to enable further analysis of the company's performance and underlying trends. Management uses non-GAAP measures to better assess operating performance and to establish operational goals. Non-GAAP information should not be viewed by investors as a substitute for data prepared in accordance with GAAP. And now I would like to turn the call over to Canadian Solar's Chairman and CEO, Dr. Sean Hughes. Sean, please go ahead.

Thank you, Wina. Thank you to everyone for joining our fourth quarter call today. Please turn to slide three. 2023 marked a record year for Canadian solar. CSI Solar achieved solar module shipment of 30.7 gigawatts, a year-over-year increase of 45 percent. This milestone drove our revenue to an all-time high of 7.6 billion U.S. dollars. Despite challenging conditions, our four-year net income attributable to Canadian solar shareholders was $274 million, or $3.87 per diluted share, a historic high. Before we delve deeper, let's take a moment to reflect on our journey over the past two decades. Please turn to slide four. Canadian solar has evolved into a full-stack solar and battery energy storage business, spanning both manufacturing and project development. Our strategic decision to carve out CSI Solar has established it as a vertically integrated powerhouse with 118 gigawatts of cumulative shipments. Our focus here remains on leading-edge technology and strategic sustainable expansion. Within CSI Solar, our utility-scale battery energy storage business, eStorage, is post to deliver on a massive US$2.6 billion backlog, which will continue to grow. Meanwhile, Recurrent Energy has become one of the world's largest and most geographically diverse project developers, which recently announced US$500 million BlackRock investment it has equipped with the ammunition to execute on its business transformation. What does this all mean? We are prepared to navigate the next phase of the industry and our own evolution. Not only can we capitalize on the collaborative advantages across our businesses, but we also possess different levers for growth. This diversified nature, coupled with our world-class team, enables our steadfast commitment to long-term value-accretive growth. Turning to slide five, we see the world is grappling with a surge in clean energy demand. From data center to electric vehicles to cryptocurrency mining, these energy-hungry sectors are stressing agent power grids, in some cases even prompting businesses to construct their own power plants. According to BCG, data centers share of U.S. electricity is set to triple from 2.5 percent in 2022 to 7.5 percent by 2030, reaching close to 400 terawatt hours. Moreover, the intensive requirements of these buildings that must operate day and night need a mix of power generation sources, including solar and battery energy storage. Transportation is also feeling a significant increase in electricity needs. Light duty vehicles are expected to consume north of 30 times more electricity by 2030, according to Princeton University data This surge is further intensified by the energy demands of computationally heavy autonormal driving technologies. Bloomberg reports that assuming energy efficiency continues to improve as it has in the past decade, the power usage by in-vehicle computers could hit 26 terawatt hours by 2040, comparable to the usage of approximately 60 million desktop computers. Moving on to the U.S., a key strategic market for us. Please turn to slide six. you can see our Texas factory, which began production at the end of last year, has been ramping smoothly, supporting local job creation. We continue to see strong interest in and demand for our locally made products. Furthermore, to support our growing market share, we have also prepared our timeline resources from wafer to cell to module. Here we note that over the past few months, certain litigation has created confusion within the industry. We reaffirm that the preliminary and final determination of the Department of Commerce set the new rules for country of origin, and Canadian solar has responsibly adjusted its supply chain to ensure compliance with the new rules, specifically both the wafer and four out of six rules. Our strength in U.S. is founded on strong customer relationships and our trusted brand. For example, just last month, our solar PV modules powered the first ever 100% renewable energy powered Super Bowl. We also received the top brand PV USA 2024 award from EUPD, a globally renowned authority in market research. With that, let me turn the call over to Ian, who will provide more details on our CSI solar business. Ian, please go ahead.