Good afternoon, and welcome to SPI Energy's third quarter fiscal 2022 conference call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded, and participants are in listen-only mode. The call will be open for question and answers following the presentation. On today's call are SPI Energy's Chairman and CEO, Xiaofeng Peng, and COO, Hoong Khoeng Cheong. Before we begin, the company would like to remind everyone that various remarks about future expectations, plans and prospects constitute forward-looking statements for the purpose of safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. SPI cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially than those indicated, including risks described in the company's filings with the SEC.
Any forward-looking statement made on this conference call speaks only as of today's date, Wednesday, November 16th, 2022 , and SPI does not intend to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after today. I will now pass the call over to Xiaofeng Peng, Chairman and CEO. Mr. Peng, please proceed.
Thank you, Sherry, and thank you to everyone for joining us today on our third quarter 2022 earnings call. We are pleased to report double-digit year-over-year revenue growth in the third quarter, driven by the continued performance of our strategic investment and solar project development initiatives. With the recent passing of the Inflation Reduction Act, we anticipate our growth will be accelerated in the quarters ahead. The Inflation Reduction Act enable us to earn attractive incentive from our rapidly expanding solar module manufacturing operation in California, which is ramping up capacity to meet the anticipated significant increase in consumer and commercial demand. Currently, most of our solar module manufacturing capacity have been sold out this year, with the operation gross margin more than 35%.
As part of our expansion, we signed a new property and facility lease adjacent to our current facility in McClellan Park, California, during the third quarter. We anticipate this facility will enable us to increase our solar module manufacturing capacity to 2.4 GW in 2023, collectively with our new plant facility in the east and middle part of the country. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, this additional $0.07 per watt manufacturing incentive will be starting next year in 2023, which we expect will help to further improve our income of solar module manufacturing business by additional 10%-15% next year. Looking closer at the third quarter, SPI had another strong performance with some multiple milestones achieved.
The foundation for the formation of the SEM Wafertech and signing of a letter of intent to acquire 1.5 GW solar wafer manufacturing equipment was one of our key achievements in the quarter. As demand for solar continue growing in the U.S., there is an increasing need for local source solar wafers. With the launch of SEM Wafertech, we gain the benefit of adding new high-margin revenue-generating business segment, while also mitigating potential future supply chain issues from overseas suppliers. Solar wafer are the key component used for manufacturing solar cells, which are used in manufacturing of solar modules. We are targeting delivery and production of solar wafers in the U.S. by 2023, with the capacity to ramp up 3 GW by 2024.
This strategic investment is bound to benefit greatly from expected rapid increase in demand, driven by an attractive incentive of the Inflation Reduction Act, which will enable us to earn additional $12 per sq ft produced. Before I pass this call over to HK, I will conclude my comments by noting that our world-class team is building on a multi-decade track record of success. I'm confident that with our strong foundation, combined with growing industrial links, we are in a good position to gradually increase market share across each of our business units. This ultimately enable us to unlock new value for our shareholders as we accelerate growth in the quarters ahead. I now turn the call over to our Chief Operating Officer, HK Cheong , for further details of our operational performance in the third quarter. HK.
Thank you, Denton. Yeah, we begun the second phase of the utility-scale solar project in Illinois during the third quarter. This 32.4 MW AC or 34.83 MW DC project is on 167 acres of land in Kendall County, Illinois, and is expected to begin operation by 2026. During its first year of operation, the solar project is expected to produce 57 million kWh of energy. This is equivalent electricity needed to offset the CO2 emission of more than 5,000 homes in one year. Another exciting achievement during the third quarter was the signing of cooperation agreement between our Solar4America and Wallbox. Wallbox offers a complete portfolio of charging and energy management solutions for residential, semi-public and public use in more than 100 countries.
This agreement enhances the premium offering in our portfolio, specifically with respect to solutions for smart residential and commercial charging, as well as bidirectional charging. I would like to provide more updates on our American-made solar module manufacturing business. We are currently based in Sacramento, California, with 100 MW capacity in mass production and start delivering American-made solar modules to U.S. customers. The capacity of this production line has been fully booked for the remaining of this year, with backlog orders of more than 20 MW. Our module business is primarily in residential, commercial, and industrial sector. We have contracted national and regional distributors like CED, Krannich Solar, ABC Supply, and we are growing our C&I customer base as well.
Our average ASP is $0.55/W or more, and with our average cost of $0.36-$0.37/W, we expect gross margin of more than 35% from this business. The recent February Inflation Reduction Act benefits Solar4America as a U.S.-based solar module manufacturer with incentive becoming effective in 2023, meaning we will be eligible for an additional $0.07/W incentive, which will increase our other income by 10%-15%. Our phase two capacity expansion of 550 MW commenced in quarter three this year, and is expected to be up and running by the end of 2022. With the completion of this expansion plan, we will have 650 MW capacity per year at our existing facilities. Now turning to our financials.
This is the company's third quarter filing as a U.S. company on Form 10-Q, and follows the filing of our first annual report on Form 10-K in March. This translates to increased transparency and more timely reporting of our performance metrics compared to our previous requirement as a foreign filer. For the quarter ended September 30, 2022, our net sales increased 10.9% to $43.2 million, up from $39 million in Q3 of 2021. Revenues continue to be mainly driven by increasing sales from our solar business line. Our cost of revenue, which consists primarily of raw material and labor costs, increased to $45.5 million in the third quarter, up from $40.1 million in Q3 of 2021, and consistent with our increase in net revenues.
Our gross loss was $2.3 million in the third quarter compared to a gross loss of $1.1 million in the year ago period, giving us negative margin of 5.3%. The decrease in gross margin was primarily due to the decrease in gross margin of our roofing and solar energy system installation segment. Since the company indirect cost of job management is relatively fixed, the decrease in number of work-in-progress jobs significantly decreased the overall gross profit. General administrative expenses were $8.8 million or 20.5% of net sales in the third quarter of 2022, and compared to $9.5 million or 24.4% of net sales in the third quarter of 2021. This decrease was mainly due to the decrease in stock-based compensation expense.
Total operating expenses in Q3 decreased to $11.5 million or 27% of net sales, down from $14.9 million or 38% of net sales in the third quarter of 2021. Interest expense was $1.3 million during the quarter, with no significant changes in our convertible bonds and other borrowing during the period. Together, these and other factors resulted in net loss of $13.5 million in the third quarter, an improvement of more than $3 million from the net loss of $16.6 million in the third quarter of 2021. As of September 30, 2022, we have $6.1 million in cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash. We look forward to sharing our ongoing success with you in future updates. We are now opening the call for questions.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question is from Tate Sullivan with the Maxim Group. Please proceed.
Okay, thank you. Good day, all. In regards to your comments about the California facility and the manufacturing of solar modules, I hear you say your capacity is fully booked or rather that your backlog is approximately 20 MW of panels, please?
Yeah. For this year's production is already fully booked. For next year we are, you know, most of customers have commitment orders. It's in a very strong demand. I think we cannot produce enough. I mean, the demand is probably 10 times bigger than what we can produce today.
For next year. They're placing advanced orders. Do a lot of the customers prefer to take delivery in 2023? Or are they taking delivery currently in this current quarter of the modules?
We take them almost every container panel they will take them every week. Most of our module now we are shipping almost every week. A lot of module is produced. We are continuing to increase our production capacity, so most of our modules is we can produce and deliver this year. Of course, the demand for next year is much more demand than we can produce today and for next year.
Then understanding this is your first quarter of re-reporting quarterly financials for the third quarter, I mean, with the quarter-over-quarter decline in revenue, it appeared to have happened last year as well. Are there any seasonal factors to consider in the Australian solar distribution business or is that not the case for that business?
Yeah. Our revenue is still increasing double digits compared to last year's same period.
Yeah.
We have been able to reduce some of our roofing and the business and just to focus more on solar installation only. This is something that will slow down a little bit in the third quarter. Our module business in turn is already starting to ramp up from our first delivery in June, and we're starting to ramp up the capacity production in third quarter. I think we will have a much stronger delivery in quarter four for the very profitable business in module manufacturing in U.S. This will be the driver of our revenue growth in the coming quarters and especially for next year because of the big incentive from the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act.
This will give additional $0.07 for the module manufacturing in U.S. We have already built 650 MW capacity in California. This will be driver for our revenue goals for next year.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you.
As a reminder to star one on your telephone keypad if you would like to ask a question. Our next question is from Tim Moore with EF Hutton. Please proceed.
Do you have sales guidance for the fourth quarter, for the December quarter? Is it fair to assume that your previous guidance of $200 million-$220 million for the year might be a little bit of a stretch goal?
Yeah, we have not provided guidance yet for the because it's this year, you know, still many things have happened, especially, you know, we are ramping up a lot module manufacturing and in the Sacramento factory. As we said, we have most of capacity in probably 20 MW of capacity already we can produce in quarter four already fully booked. This will give us an additional revenue, so more than, you know, $10 million easy. We have not yet put a guidance for this quarter because there's some uncertainty. We see some in the installation business and also in the distribution business.
Generally the March will be dramatically happen because it's the quarter four and the big increase will be the gross margin of the business because our American module manufacturing business have a 35% gross margin, and this very healthy business and the gross margin is higher than other business that we operate today.
Okay. That's helpful. Just I have two questions related to that. When you start reporting your March quarter, when you report early next year, will you add a separate revenue stream line item for the solar module and wafer manufacturing, or will it be rolled up in part of solar PV components when you report your sales numbers next year?
Yeah, I think we just consolidate the revenue in because currently most our business is profitable. The electricity sale business is power purchase agreement. You know, we have very stable sale of electricity in Hawaii and in Greece, in Italy, in the United Kingdom. This business is very stable, has a very strong cash flow and a very high gross margin. It's more than 40% because it's a sure sale of electricity. The revenue is low. Then we have from time to time sell our PV project business. This is one time. Sometimes we have a lot of pipeline. Currently, the company have more than 400 MW pipeline globally. It's actually most of the project based in U.S.
This is very valuable project in, especially like project in Oregon, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Maryland, and also in California. All these projects, the value is very, very high. We have invested a lot of money in this area and develop this project in the last 5-10 years. This will be very, very big value. I said we will sell this, the project will be after finished development from time to time. We have very strong distribution business in Australia. This business always profitable last few years, continue growing, year by year. We see the business growing and still profitable, this business. We have EV business, Phoenix Motorcars.
This means of course maybe take some time to be profitable, but this business has already spun-off IPO in June and at a valuation of $150 million. We raised $60 million in that IPO. We have a solar installation business, we bought it two or three years ago. This business is now also starting to grow and provide a very good foundation for selling our module in China and the very good brands. This is a business already running very well now. For the solar, especially focus the solar installation in California. Most importantly we want to highlight is our newly set up, end of last year, the solar module manufacturing business in Sacramento.
We invest a lot of money and a lot of efforts, a lot of employees here. Now employees increasing almost every week. You know, we have ramped up to full capacity of 650 MW and have very strong demand for the solar, American-made module. Last year we're thinking also set up a solar wafer factory, made in U.S. This will also bring additional very important revenue for the company in the future.
HK, when you get more revenue at the Sacramento plant with American-made modules, will you tell investors what that revenue number is each quarter going forward? You know, would you say, you know, $10 million, $15 million this quarter, $20 million? Will you actually share that in the press release or on the conference call?
Yeah. For example, if you see, you know, lastly for fourth quarter, we have full books of 20 MW orders. It means our current selling price is more than $0.55. It's easily we can sell $11 million as the operating gross margin of 35% just from this business itself. Next year we have a full capacity of 650 MW module production. Even we take, you know, like, a similar price of that and plus the premium, we can easily have probably $0.65 by 650 MW. We can easily have more than $300 million revenue for next year. This is. I think it will be more than the revenue we just had today for last few years.
This is why we say this is a very big change for the company and a big driver for the company. We have a just in Sacramento, California facility that is 650 MW module manufacturing capacity. We'll have make products have more than $300 million revenue if we produce all the module we produce. Today the demand is very strong for next year and probably 10 times bigger than we can produce today for our power.
Okay.
Happiness.
Yeah. That's really helpful, HK. Thank you. Thank you for those numbers and for sharing that color. I just have two more questions. Could you maybe elaborate a little bit more on, for the September quarter that you just reported results, there was a gross loss in the quarter. It's usually been a gross positive, gross margin for the quarter. Can you maybe explain a little bit more on maybe what that was, what really dragged it down? And would you expect to have a gross margin, a positive gross margin in the December quarter?
I think, you know, even the—we have EV business is still loss and, of course with the engineering, so we considered. Also we have a solar and roofing installation business originally we bought from. We are focused on more on California and more focused on solar installation. This has some transition cost. Also in the third quarter, our solar module still in the phase of ramping up. We still, you know, are making many equipment coming, many more hiring, many ongoing expenses because small revenue because ramped up change periods.
This will be definitely more change totally starting from quarter four, especially for next year because the most of our ramp up process, we will be to full capacity for next year. Especially for our module manufacturing capacity. Most expenses will be going to the profit business. The only business will continue probably having lost money is the EV business, but it's already spin off from June. Most our business will be very profitable next year.
Okay. Well, that's really helpful, HK. My last question is about the EV business. For the electric vehicles, I know when Phoenix Motorcars reported earlier this week that there was battery supply constraints and a software issue that was being resolved. Do you think that it will take until the end of the first quarter to recoup those delayed revenues that you were maybe anticipating for the September and December quarters? Do you think it's pushed out or do you think that the EV business can do a few million of revenue in the December quarter?
Yeah, I think for the EV business is the Phoenix Motorcars and the module business reports separately. If you have any question, you can definitely to contact the management team of the Phoenix Motorcars. Generally, you know, they have, as they said, you know, they have some delay on the battery and the chassis. The backlog is still very strong and still everything's moving as they planned. They have done very well in the operation of the Phoenix Motorcars. If you have more detailed questions, they're happy you can connect with the management of the Phoenix Motorcars.
Thank you so much, HK. I appreciate it and thank you, gentlemen.
Thank you.
That concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Denton Peng for closing comments.
Thank you for your joining today. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. This does conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.
Yeah. Thank you all.
Thank you. Bye.