Global solar PV manufacturer SunPower has announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2015 and FY2015. The global solar power pipeline kept growing, yet the overall financial performance was flat comparing to the third quarter of 2015 and FY2014.

The GAAP revenue of 4Q15 was US$374.4 million, lower than US$380.2 million in 3Q14 and US$1,164.2 million in 4Q14. GAAP gross margin for the quarter, 5.4%, was rapidly dropped from 16.5% in 3Q15 and 22.3% in 4Q14. As for the net income/loss, SunPower met a GAAP net loss of US$127.6 million comparing to net loss of US$56.3 million in 3Q15 and net income of US$134.7 million in 4Q14.

The non-GAAP figures showed a more moderate change. The non-GAAP revenue of 4Q15 was US$1,363.9 million, up from US$441.4 million in 3Q15 and US$609.7 million in 4Q14. The growth was majorly from income of power plants.

Non-GAAP gross margin of 4Q15 hit 28.8%, and the non-GAAP gross margin of the power plant sector for the quarter was 32.9%. In comparison, the non-GAAP gross margin of 3Q15 was 17.7%, with 8.2% of the power plant sector; of 4Q14 was 20.4%, with 22.0% of the power plant sector.

The non-GAAP net income of 4Q15 was US$270.4 million, significantly higher than US$20.5 million in 3Q15 and US$39.4 million in 4Q14.

“2015 was a transformational year for the solar industry as increasing demand, favorable policy developments and broad global support for renewables created strong industry growth fundamentals,” said Tom Werner, SunPower president and CEO. “During the year, we executed on our technology roadmaps, added new products and launched our joint YieldCo vehicle 8point3 Energy Partners. We are well positioned to capitalize on the continued growing adoption of solar in North America as well as key international markets such as China and Latin America. We also expanded our global power plant footprint while completing the world's largest solar power plant, located in California.”

The global solar asset pipeline has exceeded 14GW, 4.1GW are in Americas and 6.15GW are in Middle East and Africa. The pipeline comprises more than 325 solar projects across over 25 countries. In addition, the distributed generation systems also grew in 2015. Installations from residential segment increased 60% y-o-y.