Enlight Renewable Energy - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Transcript

Speaker 5

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Enlight Renewable Energy Second Quarter 2025 earnings call. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Yonah Weisz, Director IR. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the Second Quarter 2025 earnings conference call for Enlight Renewable Energy. Before beginning this call, I would like to draw participants' attention to the following: certain statements made on the call today, including but not limited to statements regarding business strategy and plans, our project portfolio, market opportunity, utility demand and potential growth, discussions with commercial counterparties and financing sources, pricing trends for materials, progress of company projects, including anticipated timing of related approvals and project completion, and anticipated production delays, expected impact from various regulatory developments, completion of development, the potential impact of the current conflicts in Israel on our operations and financial conditions, and company actions designed to mitigate such impacts, and the company's future financial and operational results and guidance, including revenue and adjusted EBITDA, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S.

Federal Securities Laws, which reflect management's best judgment based on currently available information. We reference certain metrics in this earnings call, and additional information about such metrics can be found in our earnings release. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from our expectations. Please refer to our 2024 Annual Report filed with the SEC on March 28, 2025, and other filings for more information on the specific factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements. Although we believe these expectations are reasonable, we undertake no obligation to revisit any statements to reflect changes that occur after this call. Additionally, non-IFRS financial measures may be discussed on the call. These non-IFRS measures should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for, or in isolation from, our results prepared in accordance with IFRS.

Reconciliations to the most directly comparable IFRS financial measures are available in the earnings release and the earnings presentation for today's call, which are posted on our Investor Relations webpage. With me this morning are Gilad Yavetz, CEO and Co-Founder of Enlight, Nir Yehuda, CFO of Enlight, Adam Pishl, CEO and Co-Founder of Clenera, and Jared McKee, incoming CEO of Clenera. Gilad will provide some opening remarks and then turn the call over to Adam and Jared for a review of our U.S. activity, and then to Nir for a review of our second quarter results. Our executive team will then be available to answer your questions.

Speaker 3

Thank you for joining us today for Enlight's Second Quarter 2025 earnings call. We are pleased to report another strong quarter of results. Revenue and income grew by 53% compared to the same quarter last year, reaching $135 million. Adjusted EBITDA also increased by 57% to $96 million. Net income amounted to $6 million compared to $9 million in the same quarter last year, mainly due to the accounting classification of a foreign currency shareholder loan impacted by exchange rate values. Given this momentum, we are raising our full-year 2025 guidance ranges. Using the midpoint of these new ranges, revenues rise to $528 million from $500 million previously, and adjusted EBITDA rises to $393 million from $370 million previously. This represents a 5% to 6% increase at the midpoint for both metrics, respectively, and underscores confidence in our business outlook.

The company is advancing with the roadmap which we first presented in May, targeting an annual revenue run rate of roughly $2 billion by the end of 2028, roughly four times the 2025 revenues. Nir will provide a detailed financial review later in the call. We've also recently announced an expansion of Enlight's executive leadership team. Adili Vietan will take on the role of CEO of the company at the start of October, and I will transition to become the Executive Chairman of the Board in full-time capacity. Yair Sorouzi, who has served as Chairman of the Board for the past seven years, will assume the role of Vice Chairman. Following two decades of leadership roles with global corporations such as 3M and McKinsey & Co. in Israel, China, and the U.S., Adili brings a wealth of experience to Enlight.

Her addition to the executive team reinforces our core values of excellence and integrity and will contribute to valuable management insights and best practices from a Fortune 100 company. I will continue to work closely with Adili, the Board, and the leadership, as well as all the employees of Enlight, remaining fully committed to steering Enlight's future growth. The current market environment for the renewable energy sector across geographies is positive now. Fundamentals remain very strong as the electrification trend and especially AI are driving demand significantly beyond supply, leading to continued increases in power prices. In parallel, the cost of solar panels and energy storage equipment continues to decline, breaching historic moves. As a result, renewables are the most cost-effective method for generating electricity and are continuously increasing the gap versus conventional energy.

With lower CapEx and higher power prices, we believe project returns will remain attractive in the regions we operate in. Specifically in the U.S., regulatory clarity and a supportive business environment create the runway for accelerated growth. We believe that the terms of the recently passed reconciliation bill are very favorable for the utility-scale solar and storage segments, providing the larger companies such as Enlight Renewable Energy a window of significant growth opportunities. It allows Enlight Renewable Energy to continue with our major expansion plan through 2028. Solar levelized cost of energy remains extremely price-competitive compared to traditional power sources, especially in the Southwest U.S., one of our prime development markets. Given the cost-effectiveness of our projects, we believe we are well positioned to continue growing also beyond 2030 in a subsidy-free environment. Adam Pishl will give more detail on our U.S. project progress shortly.

In Europe, we are seizing the energy storage opportunity. Given the high percentage of renewables within Europe's energy supply, we see very strong demand for storage. Costs of energy storage equipment are at historic lows. Coupled with high-priced arbitrage and ancillary services revenues, we expect to generate very attractive returns in the region. As a global frontrunner in energy storage, Enlight Renewable Energy was early to identify the opportunity in this segment, and 7.8 GWh of our total portfolio comprises energy storage projects in five countries in Europe, 3.6 GWh of which are expected to reach operations by 2028. Finally, we are breaking into new areas of growth also in Israel.

Given Israel's market dynamics and dependency on solar within the renewable sector, we see a very strong need for energy storage in the country, where we are the leading player and are expanding rapidly with 6.9 GWh of planned storage projects in our advanced development and development portfolios. Following recent land reform, AgroSolar is taking large steps forward, and we are very early to secure dozens of land agreements for the segment. On the basis of our experience in Israel, we are positioned to pioneer the AgroSolar revolution, also in other geographies worldwide with similar needs. We see demand for data centers in the coming years and the important role that energy plays in developing and operating these assets. We are in the early stages of developing the land we recently acquired in the south of Israel for our first data center, a location surrounded by adjacent renewable energy sites.

To summarize, this quarter we demonstrated robust financial results and raised our guidance, strengthened our senior leadership, and made tangible progress across our near and long-term growth plans, positioning Enlight to continue outpacing the market in both growth and returns. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Adam.

Speaker 0

Thank you, Gilad. Our U.S. business continues to experience incredible growth with achievements in construction, financing, and the development of our deep project pipeline. We are demonstrating our ability to build profitable projects and continue to deliver power to meet America's increasing energy demand. I'm happy to report our Snowflake A project near Sedona, Arizona, has mobilized and entered into full construction. Through early construction activity this summer, we have safe-harbored the project for optimal tax credits. Snowflake A includes 600 megawatts of solar power and 1.9 GWh of battery storage and is the first of two linked projects that will field 1 GW interconnection on the site. Snowflake A is currently scheduled to COD in 2027. We continue to make progress at our three other projects under construction this year. Let's move on to a project located east of Tucson, Arizona.

Roadrunner Solar and Storage includes 290 megawatts of PV and 940 megawatt-hours of battery storage. Just last month, we successfully completed the initial energization of the substation, a major milestone. The racking and tracking systems are complete, and we are more than halfway through installation of the solar modules. We are using Tesla Megapacks as our battery storage solution. Those are installed, and we are making good progress on the wiring and power management system. The project remains on schedule for a COD towards the end of 2025. Moving on to our second project outside Albuquerque, New Mexico. Quail Ranch Solar and Storage includes 128 megawatts of PV and 400 megawatt-hours of battery storage. Piles, racking, and tracking equipment are complete, and we are over halfway complete with the module installation. Currently, the batteries are being delivered and installed.

Our final project under construction is Country Acres, a 403 megawatt PV and 688 megawatt-hour battery storage project located outside Sacramento, California. Construction on the PV site is well underway, and we have completed the Golden Row, achieving the important real-world testing of the design and clearing the way for successful construction of the rest of the site. We continue to work on piles and racking. The batteries are scheduled to be delivered this winter. The project remains on schedule for COD by the end of 2026. As we announced last month, Jared McKee, our Chief Commercial Officer, will take my place as CEO beginning October 1st of this year. Jared has been a leader at Clenera for nearly a decade.

He has played a key role in building our robust development pipeline of projects and creating the structures and processes needed for us to execute the funding and construction of those projects. His growth into the CEO role brings the leadership, strength, and continuity needed to expand our U.S. business. It has been an honor to see the company I co-founded 12 years ago emerge as a market leader. As Jared takes over the day-to-day leadership, I will remain a part of the Clenera and Enlight family, serving as Vice Chair of the Clenera Board and an Executive Advisor. Let me close by emphasizing that the demand for energy continues to soar, and our unique ability to build and deliver large power and battery storage facilities at a fast pace makes us a prime choice for utilities seeking new sources of power across the country.

Our outlook remains very positive as we deliver the next generation of reliable, affordable, clean energy projects to the market. Jared, would you like to say a few words?

Speaker 4

Thank you, Adam. It has been an honor to learn from you and the Enlight leaders as we build a world-class renewable energy company. My time leading the development team involved a focus on implementing process and operational improvements to expedite the conversion of projects from ideas to reality and to continually grow our early greenfield development efforts. I look forward to advancing our company to the greatest period of growth yet. I'm excited to step into this leadership role with a special focus on execution and delivery of projects that will take us through not just the near term, but for many years to come. I will be sharing more of our growth story during future earnings calls. Thank you, and let me turn the call over to Nir.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Jared. In the second quarter of 2025, the company's total revenues and income increased to $135 million, up from $88 million last year, a growth rate of 53% year-over-year. This was composed of revenues from the sale of electricity, which rose 37% to $116 million, compared to $85 million in the same period of 2024, as well as a recognition of $19 million in income from tax benefits, compared to $3 million in the second quarter of 2024. Revenues from the sale of electricity grew due to the contribution of newly operational projects. Since the second quarter of 2024, three of the solar and storage cluster units in Israel, Atrisco in the U.S., Pupin in Serbia, and Tapolca in Hungary all began selling electricity. The most important increases originated at Atrisco, which added $13 million, followed by the Israel Solar and Storage cluster, which added $12 million.

In total, new projects contributed $30 million to revenues from the sale of electricity. Revenues and income were distributed between MENA, Europe, and the U.S., with 40% of revenues in the second quarter of 2025 from Israel, 35% from Europe, and 25% from the U.S. Second quarter net income amounted to $6 million, compared to $9 million last year, a decrease of 41% year-over-year. The change was driven mainly by new projects, which contributed $15 million of net income, offset by $12 million non-cash charges linked to the revaluation of shareholder loan to a subsidiary, and an $8 million increase in other financial expenses, all after tax. Adjusting from the effects of foreign currency revaluation, net income amounted to $16 million, compared to $7 million last year, an increase of 110% year-over-year.

The company adjusted EBITDA grew by 57% to $96 million, compared to $61 million for the same period in 2024. The increase in adjusted EBITDA was boosted by $47 million, stemming from the same factors that drove the revenues and income increase mentioned above, along with a recognition of $3 million in compensation linked to blade failures to the Björn project in Sweden. It was offset by an additional $13 million in cost of sales linked to new projects, while other operating expenses rose by $3 million. Looking to our balance sheet, Enlight completed the financial close for the hybridization of the Gecama project in Spain, securing $310 million in financing for the addition of 225 megawatts of solar and 220 megawatt-hour storage capacity to the existing 329 megawatt wind project.

Since the fourth quarter of 2024, Enlight Renewable Energy has raised $1.8 billion in project finance and $300 million from corporate debt and asset sales to support its expansion plans, with particular focus on the U.S. In addition to these funds, we have $525 million of credit facilities at several Israeli and international banks, of which only $9 million has been drawn as at the balance sheet date. In addition, we have approximately $1 billion of LC and surety bond facilities supporting our global expansion, of which half was available for use at the end of the quarter. This further increases our financial flexibility as we continue to deliver on our growth strategy. Given the strong financial performance during the first half of 2025, we are raising our 2025 guidance ranges.

With revenues and income now expected between $520 million and $535 million, and adjusted EBITDA expected between $385 million and $400 million, representing a 5.5% and 6% increase for both metrics, respectively, compared to our previous guidance ranges. Our revenues and income guidance for 2025 includes recognition of an estimated $70 million to $80 million in income from U.S. tax benefits, and 90% of 2025 generation output is expected to be sold at fixed price, either through hedges or PPA. I will now turn the call over to the operator for questions.

Speaker 5

Thank you. To ask a question, please press *11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press *11 again. Questions will be answered in the order they are received. We will now take the first question from the line. Mark Wesley Strouse from JPMorgan Chase, please go ahead.

Yes. Hello there. Thank you very much for taking our questions. My first question, kind of thinking about Safe Harbor and the July 7th executive order from President Trump, you know, kind of the industry just waiting to see what the new guidelines potentially might be. With regards to Enlight, I'm curious, you've got some projects that are scheduled to be complete by the end of 2027 or potentially first half of 2028. You know, Roadrunner and Snowflake, kind of curious, you know, to the extent you've safeguarded those already, but if the Safe Harbor rules change, can you talk about your ability to accelerate those projects to ensure that they are complete by the end of 2027, and therefore we don't have to worry about potential Safe Harbor guidelines?

Speaker 2

Okay. Hi, Mark. It's Gilad. How are you? I will start with the answer, then Jared, if you want, you can complement me. To start, I would say that currently we already have 6 GW that are fully safe-harbored, and they account for the majority of our plan towards the end of 2027, which is for 6.5 to 8 GW to be connected to the network. In addition, we believe that with the fact that we are a large developer with good access to capital and cost of capital and a lot of very good liquidity, relatively we are in a very good position if we need to accelerate cash investment in order to meet potential different criteria. We believe that we are positioned in a very good situation.

First, we are reaffirming our roadmap that we announced on the 27th of May to reach $1.4 billion of total revenues and income as ARR by the end of 2027 and $2 billion of ARR by the end of 2028. We are reaffirming that after the reconciliation bill. We believe we are also positioned very well in order to adjust to any different criteria if such is introduced. Jared, would you like to complement?

Speaker 1

Sure. Thank you, Gilad. In respect to COBAR and Snowflake, we are starting construction. We have the ability to meet the needs of both, already starting construction in respect to safe-harboring. As Gilad has mentioned, we have the ability to meet the demands if there are some in the future to accelerate construction. COBAR and Snowflake are already expected to be online before the end of 2027, so they already fit within the schedule of the executive order.

Perfect. Okay. Thank you very much. Just a follow-up, with India being in the news, and one of your major panel suppliers located in India, curious to the extent that India tariff rates coming into the U.S. increase, or the new ABCDE case that's out there, including India, can you talk about your supply, if you're locked into that supply, and your ability to pass that on in your PPAs if you are, in fact, locked into that supply? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yeah, Jared, you can start with our supply chain strategy, and I will complement afterwards.

Speaker 1

Yeah. Projects currently in delivery will not be impacted by the new ABCDE case against Laos, Indonesia, and India. Our next wave of projects will be contracted such that ABCDE will not apply.

Speaker 2

Yeah. I will just add that I think we are now benefiting from a very diversified supply chain strategy. We have many sources of production for the panels, also coming from many countries. It seems that since the tariff regulation was introduced, we see that we have very good resilience against different orders in this regard. We are very confident that we will meet that.

Speaker 1

Mark, if I just may add one more thing. In terms of the interaction with Worry, we're not locked into anything, it's an option to purchase. We have no liability, we have no requirement to buy from them.

Great, thank you very much.

Speaker 5

Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Justin Lars Clare from ROTH Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Hey, everyone. Thanks for the time here. I first just wanted to follow up on Mark's question. You had mentioned the 6 GW you fully safe-harbored at this point in time. I was just wondering because you had previously spoken about a 6.5 to 8 GW potential. I know there's some uncertainty related to the executive order, but maybe you could speak to your plans and how you're executing at this point in terms of adding additional safe harbor projects. It does seem like the projects that were safe-harbored in 2024 may be not subject to the executive order. Is there any way to quantify how much of the 6 GW was safe-harbored prior to 2025?

Speaker 2

Yeah. First, it's important to mention that according to the reconciliation bill, we have until July 1, 2026, in order to make projects eligible for the safe harbor. At this point in time, having 6 GW out of the 6.5 to 8 GW plan is a very, very good position. I would say that since May 27, when we first introduced our plan, we had back then 4.9 GW, and then we qualified an additional 1.1 GW coming from the Snowflake A project. We are now already at 6 GW. The pace is very high, and I believe that by the end of June 2026, we'll have eligible much more than what we anticipated.

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. Could you just speak to also the trend in PPAs you're seeing for U.S. projects, maybe specifically for COD dates out in the 2028 or 2029 timeframe? It might be a little bit early at this point, but would you anticipate a decrease in the supply of projects in those later years, given the potential reduction in the tax credits available there? Would you expect an upward pressure on PPAs?

Yeah, Jared, why don't you start? I will complement afterwards.

Speaker 1

Yep. Not a problem. As we look to 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, it will largely depend on what are the components of the executive order and also the adjustments, if any, on the startup construction requirements. It is too early to know where and how the supply will adjust without the guidance coming in. You can be sure that we are tracking and monitoring the guidance, and as it comes out, we will adjust. One of the things that we are doing is we are advancing our startup construction strategy to ensure that we have the most projects possible that are ready to deliver in 2028, 2029, and 2030.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

Got it.

Speaker 2

Jared, I will add just that we think that the decisive factor here is the demand for electricity. There is a very strong demand for electricity, as you know, in the U.S., coming mainly from the data center industry and AI and so forth. Now, if you refer to the standard economy of solar energy and storage in Europe and in all the developed worlds, our NCOE is already economical and does not require the tax equity. The fact that the reconciliation deal allowed a gradual time for the U.S. market to adapt to that is very favorable, and we believe it's the right policy. We believe that by the end of 2028, 2029, 2030, the U.S. market will be already, I would say, will adapt already. The world economy where the cost of 1 megawatt is $600,000 rather than $1.2 million.

Therefore, we are very optimistic about continuing the growth in the U.S. based on a non-tax equity economy starting from 2030. I refer to the fact that energy storage has even more, you know, a gradual timeline. We believe that the U.S. economy, or I would say the administration, did the right thing by allowing the U.S. market to adapt to that with demand for electricity being, I would say, the most important factor here.

Okay, I appreciate it. I'll pass it on.

Speaker 5

Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Karen Blanchard from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Hey, thanks for taking the question. This is actually Mike Belpy on for Karen. Congrats on the guidance raise. My first question concerning that, FX has been a pretty meaningful tailwind for you guys year to date. Can you parse out the contribution of FX to the increased guidance, and then talk about what assumptions you have baked into the guidance for FX?

Speaker 2

Yeah. Thanks for the question. First, yes, we also benefited from the FX, but I think that we raised the guidance also due to very strong performance that we had with our plans and the fact that we execute on time and we focus to continue to execute on time. We believe that the combination of this period's positive effects, but with very strong fundamentals on the operation and execution, allows us to be confident on the future, and we believe that this trend will continue.

Speaker 1

Okay. Thank you. That's really helpful. The second question I have is around component costs. During your prepared remarks, you mentioned that falling component costs is a key driver. Can you talk about just the differences between the U.S. and the rest of the world and how you see U.S. component costs for batteries and modules playing out?

Speaker 2

Yeah. Naturally, first, as most of the common components are generic, such as solar panels and inverters and, of course, battery cells and so forth, yes, it can be comparable, but under a regulation environment such as tariffs, domestic content, and so forth. Clearly, in the U.S., the same modules or the same equipment cost more, mainly due to tariffs, but also, we believe that the tax equity environment is also contributing, which is a factor that increases a little bit, let's say, the overall pool of the cost of the project. Part of it goes to the lenders or to the tax equity providers, part of it to the contractors. We see also higher BOP costs in the U.S. per kilowatt than in the other developed countries. We believe that this will adapt itself gradually, but with tariffs, of course, according to the administration policy.

We believe that the electricity prices in the market will reflect the change. To the extent that there will be tariffs, they will be reflected in electricity prices and PPAs because of the demand for electricity, of course.

Speaker 1

Great. Thanks so much.

Speaker 5

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press *111. We will now take the next question from the line of Maheep Mandloi from Mizuho. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Thanks for taking the questions here. Congratulations on the next quarter here. One question just on the safe-harbor expectations here on August 18th. I just wanted to understand one thing based on your checks with the lawyers. Is it possible that they might change the rules for projects that were safe-harbored before July 4th, or that's something which, based on the lawyers, is not possible again?

Speaker 2

Hi, Maheep. First, I guess that we are following the analysis of the law firms like yourself. It looks like the broad consensus is that there will be no or cannot be a retroactive legislation, and therefore, it will not be affected. Of course, we will follow it like everyone else. We are also following opinions of other large developers, and we see quite a broad projection that there will be a positive situation with regard to startup construction.

Very good. No, that's right. We're hearing something similar from others as well. Secondly, just on one housekeeping, on the IPC sales, it looks like $70 million to $80 million for this year. Was there a reduction from a previous estimate, or how do you think about that IPC sales revenue contribution next year?

Speaker 1

Hi, Maheep with Yonah. If I understand your question correctly, we were previously looking for tax benefit contribution of between $60 million to $80 million. This has now turned to $70 million to $80 million. The range has slimmed down just a bit.

Speaker 2

Yeah. And Maheep, just to complement the other, my previous answer, it's important, Nir just referred me to the fact that four or five major projects that are supposed to become operational on our portfolio will do so or plan to do so before the end of 2027, meaning that even if startup construction criteria is moving or something, we still have the protection of the end of 2027. We are in a very good situation.

Oh, that's good to know. Thank you.

Speaker 5

Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of David Alexander Paz from Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Just a small, or I want to make sure I heard you correctly. That is startup construction, and I believe that implies, or maybe you said that you received all the necessary studies and interconnection queue and all the other required approvals. Is that correct?

Speaker 1

Jared, would you like to take it? Is this in relation to a specific project or in general?

COBAR.

COBAR.

In Arizona.

Thank you. On COBAR, we are working through still what I would call pre and during construction. We have officially safe-harbored the project through various mechanisms, through startup construction, roads, and also transformers. We are in the final stages of the interconnection process, and we expect to start full mobilization of construction later this year and quarter.

Okay. Any sense of when you get that final interconnection?

Yeah.

Comment or whatever?

Yeah, that's expected for this year.

This year. All right. Secondly, just switching subjects, what is your plan for your, I believe you still have the PGM assets, particularly the Blackwater project, which I think is about 720 megawatts and 1.2 GWh, and it's pretty advanced. Do you have any plans for that project or the overall portfolio in PGM?

Speaker 2

Yeah. I will start. Jared, if you want to complement me. We are still developing the portfolio in PGM. Until the project is fully permitted, we are still under the development phase. We believe that we have a good portfolio there, and we are quite optimistic that it will create value for us. Jared?

Speaker 1

We have a world-class team in PGM. They are a part of the community, and we're working through the permitting processes there in Blackwater as well as the rest of the portfolio in PGM. We are going to continue their development there, work towards a permit, and continue to have the expansion of what we see across the rest of the country in PGM as well.

Great. If I can sneak one more in and just you give us run rates, revenue, and income, and very helpful. I appreciate that. Any other costs or expenses that we should be mindful of as we project outward that are not on an annual basis, development costs, or other things that you could give us a run rate for for those? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yeah. We believe that the roadmap and the details we provide are very comprehensive. The idea is that it will allow you to construct your models and analysis. Of course, if some assistance is required, we can be in touch with the team. There is no material and/or data that is different from what you see.

Great. Thank you.

If you refer to any other components in the P&L, we expect that to be increased in a lower increased proportion to the revenues and the other NDB that we're going.

Understood. Great. Thank you so much.

Speaker 5

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the conference back to Yonah Weisz for closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Thank you very much, everyone, for joining. We'll speak with you next quarter. Take care.

Speaker 5

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.