First Solar, Inc.

I would now like to turn the call over to Richard Romero from First Solar Investor Relations. Richard, you may begin.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. Today, the company issued a press release announcing its third quarter 2023 financial results. A copy of the press release and associated presentations are available on First Solar's website at With me today are Mark Widmar, Chief Executive Officer, and Alex Bradley, Chief Financial Officer. Mark will provide a business update. Alex will discuss our financial results and provide updated guidance. Following their remarks, we will open the call for questions. Please note this call will include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There are many factors that may 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 Widmore, Chief Executive Officer.

All right. Thank you, Richard. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. On our recent analyst day in September, we outlined our goal to exit the stackade in a stronger position than we ever did. We believe the future belongs to thin film, and we described our long-term intent to be positioned to serve all addressable markets and commercialize the next generation of PV technology, balancing and optimizing across efficiency, energy, and cost in an environmentally and socially responsible way. This long-term aspiration aligns with our nearer-term growth, which is underpinned by our points of differentiation and solid market fundamentals, including continued strong demand for our products, proven manufacturing excellence, a uniquely advantaged technology platform, and crucially, a balanced business model focused on delivering value to our customers and our shareholders. This is our last earnings call. We have continued to make steady progress on this journey. And I will share some key highlights related to continued strong demand and ASPs, manufacturing, operational excellence, and expansion. Beginning on slide three, we will continue to build on our backlog with 6.8 gigawatts of net bookings since our last earnings call at an ASP of 30 cents per watt, excluding India. This base ASP excludes adjusters applicable to approximately 70% of these bookings, which when applied with our aligned with our technology roadmap, may provide potential upside to the base ASP. These bookings bring our year-to-date net bookings to 27.8 gigawatts and our total backlog to 81.8 gigawatts. Our total pipeline of future bookings opportunity stands at 65.9 gigawatts, including 32.5 gigawatts of mid- to late-stage opportunities. As it relates to manufacturing, We produced 2.5 gigawatts of Series 6 modules in the third quarter with an average watt per module of 469, a top-end class of 475, and a manufacturing yield of 98%. Our third Ohio factory, which establishes the template for high-going Series 7 manufacturing, continues to ramp, demonstrating the manufacturing production capability of up to 15,000 modules per day which is approximately 97% of main plate throughput. The factory produced a total of 565 megawatts in Q3. Total year-to-date production of series 7 modules in the US has surpassed 1 gigawatt. As noted on our analyst day, the factory recently demonstrated a top module wattage produced of 550 watts as part of a limited production run. While still undergoing commercial qualification testing, this implies a record cattail production module efficiency of 19.7%. Our India plant started production in Q3 and is continuing to ramp, recently demonstrating a manufacturing production capability of approximately 12,000 modules per day, which is approximately 77% of the nameplate throughput. The factory produced a total of 154 megawatts in Q3 and recently demonstrated a top module wattage produced of 535 watts. In terms of technology, our Series 6 Plus bifacial modules completed rigorous build and laboratory testing. We recently converted our first Series 6 Plus plants in Perrysburg, Ohio, to commercially produce the world's first bifacial solar panel utilizing an advanced thin-film semiconductor. The technology features an innovative transparent back contact pioneered by First Solar's research and development team, which in addition to enabling bifacial energy gain, allows infrared wavelengths of light pass through rather than be absorbed as heat and is expected to lower the operational temperature of the bifacial module and result in higher specific energy yield. Upon successful demonstration of operational metrics and high value manufacturing, such as yield and throughput, we plan to convert more plants in the future, which will enable us to capture incremental ASP through our existing contractual adjusters. Turning to slide four, our focus on delivering value extends to our manufacturing expansion strategy. And we are making tangible progress towards achieving our forecasted 25 gigawatts of global nameplate capacity by 2026. Construction of our India facility is completed, and production has commenced. Commercial shipments are expected to begin once the factory receives the Bureau of India Standards certification from the Indian government, which is expected by year end. In September, we mobilized our new Louisiana manufacturing facility, our fifth fully vertically integrated factory in the United States. At a ceremony attended by the governor of Louisiana, we set in motion the work expected to deliver 3.5 gigawatts of annual nameplate capacity, which is anticipated to commence operation at the end of 2025. When completed, we expect 1.1 billion facility is projected to take us to approximately 14 gigawatts of annual nameplate capacity in the United States, further enhancing our ability to serve the market with domestically made modules. Meanwhile, we continue to make steady progress on the construction of our new Alabama facility, which is expected to commence operation in the second half of 2024, and our Ohio manufacturing expansion, which is projected to commence operation in the first half of 2024. Additionally, our new R&D Innovation Center and our first perovskite development line, announced at Analyst Day, are also on track. representing an expected combined investment of $450 million. The Prospect Development Line and R&D Center are expected to commence operation in the first half of 2024 and reflect our determination to lead the industry in developing the next generation of PV technologies, optimizing across efficiency, energy, and cost. Crucially, as our manufacturing footprint continues to grow, so does our supply chain. In the U.S., we recently expanded our agreement with Vitro Architectural Glass, which is investing in upgrading existing facilities in the United States to produce glass for our solar panels. The expanded capacity commitment from Vitro to First Solar is expected to commence production in the first quarter of 2026. Today, First Solar is one of the largest consumers of float glass in the United States. As PV manufacturing continues to scale in the U.S. and a premium is placed on domestically produced components, including glass, our early work to build a resilient domestic supply chain, which began in 2019, gives us a significant head start over the competition. Similarly, we expect Onco Solar to manufacture and supply Series 7 module back rails through a new facility in Alabama. This reflects our efforts to de-risk our supply chain with strategic localization. ALCO only uses American-made steel, which aligns with our intent to maximize the domestic economic value created by our U.S. manufacturing footprint. Similarly, our high facility also serves by a steel value chain that is located within a 100-mile radius of our factories. Before handing the call over to Alex, I would like to discuss our policy environment. In the United States, with regards to the Inflation Reduction Act, we continue to await guidance from the Department of Treasury on the Section 45X manufacturing tax credits. We also remain engaged with the administration and continue to work with our customers to ensure that the IRA's Domestic Content Bonus Guideline supports the Act's intent to sustainably grow U.S. solar manufacturing and its supply chains. As we have previously noted, we share our commitment to the current guidance with the administration and are working with our customers to enable their ability to benefit from the bonus credit for using U.S.-made content. We are appreciative of the work done by the Biden administration to provide a solid legislative foundation for domestic solar manufacturing. The IRA has supplied a catalyst for growth, and our goal is to leverage it to help create a position of strength for the country both now and after the term of the incentives. Beyond the IRA, we are also aware of new anti-dumping and counterfeiting duty petitions filed against importers of aluminum extrusions from 15 countries. Consistent with our views on fair trade and the importance of conforming with rules governing trade issues, We will comply with any requests for information from the United States Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission while we work to understand the potential implications. Moving abroad, we remain engaged with policymakers across Europe as the bloc attempts to tackle serious challenges to its solar manufacturing ambitions. For example, Chinese modular material in Europe stored in warehouses across the region and estimated by analysts to reach 100 gigawatts by the end of the year, is reportedly being sold at prices below its cost to manufacture. This alleged behavior, driven by overcapacity in the Chinese crystal silicon industry, that has decimated international competition over the past decade, represents a serious threat to non-Chinese manufacturing and to ambitions of diversifying solar supply chains away from the dependency on China. It also represents a policy threat potentially undermining the political willingness to deliver the comprehensive trade and industrial legislative solutions necessary to both level the playing field and incentivize domestic manufacturing. We continue to advocate for comprehensive legislation to safeguard any domestic manufacturing ambitions. Our view is that industrial policy related to CapEx benefits alone are insufficient. and that absent sufficient trade policy support to ensure a level playing field, Europe will find it challenging to achieve what the U.S. and India have been able to do in a relatively short period of time. I'll now turn the call over to Alex, who will discuss our bookings, pipeline, and survey report results.