Bloom Energy Corporation (BE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon. My name is Joel, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Bloom Energy Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I'd now like to turn the conference over to Ed Vallejo, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, and good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us for Bloom Energy's Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. To supplement this conference call, we furnished our third quarter 2022 earnings press release with the SEC on Form 8-K and have posted it along with supplemental financial information that we will reference throughout this call to our Investor Relations website. Our third quarter 2022 10-Q is also in the process of being submitted today as we speak. During this conference call, both in our prepared remarks and in answers to your questions, we may make forward-looking statements that represent our expectations regarding future events and our future financial performance. These include statements about the company's business results, products, new markets, strategy, financial position, liquidity and full year outlook for 2022. These statements are predictions based upon our expectations, estimates and assumptions. However, as these statements deal with future events, they are subject to numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties as discussed in detail in our documents filed with the SEC, including our most recently filed Forms 10-Q and 10-K. We assume no obligation to revise any forward-looking statements made on today's call. During this call and in our third quarter 2022 earnings press release, we refer to GAAP and [Technical Difficulty] not a substitute for or superior to measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation between the GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures is included in our third quarter 2022 earnings press release available on our Investor Relations website. Joining me on the call today are KR Sridhar, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Greg Cameron, our Chief Financial Officer. KR will begin with an overview of our business, then Greg will review the operating and financial highlights of the quarter. And after our prepared remarks, we will have time to take your questions. I will now turn the call over to KR.

Thank you, Ed. Hello, everyone. Good day to you. We're very pleased with our financial and operating results in the third quarter and the outlook for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022. Greg, will go into details on the financial and operating performance in his remarks in a few minutes. Before that, let me share with you some observations on market dynamics and 2 company highlights. On the market dynamics, the world lacks energy security. The disruption of oil and gas supplies to Europe, the Russian attack on grid infrastructure and power plants in Ukraine and the long-duration power outages that affected large populations in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Florida, all demonstrate the fragile and brittle nature of our fuel and electricity infrastructure. And it could have been worse. We came perilously close to catastrophic power outages in Texas and California during the summer months. Now, the Northeast fear its power reliability over the winter. Businesses and governments are quickly realizing that absent significant changes, our disruptions will increase in severity and frequency as extreme weather events become more frequent. In addition to energy security, the volatility and price increase for both fuel and electricity are contributing heavily to economic insecurity. But the fuel and power industries are not responding to these challenges with the alacrity. Instead, they are waiting for the perfect zero carbon solution of the future. They are reluctant to deploy anything that may become a stranded asset due to policy and regulatory bands. This void creates a large opportunity for Bloom. We see that our commercial and industrial consumers want pragmatic solutions that can power their growth today and meet their zero carbon needs in the future. In Bloom, our customers see a peerless platform that is purposeful and practical. By powering them with non-combustion based always on clean power today using natural gas and offering to transition them to net zero fuels when they become viable. We are offering them energy security, economic security and environmental security. We are confident that our quick time to power skid-mounted energy server will become a solution of choice for commercial, industrial and utility customers. As a company, we see the market conditions turning favorably for greater adoption of our server platform. We are well positioned to execute on the goals we have set and meet the moment. Now 2 highlights. First, we have invested in our capacity expansion by standing up a new factory in Fremont, California. In 2021, we announced our decision to fund and build additional manufacturing capacity to support our growth. Many of you saw that factory under construction during our Investor Day. We told you that we would derisk the execution by using copy exact manufacturing tools and processes and deliver a doubling of stacked manufacturing capacity by end of 2022. We are on track to doing what we said we would do. Last month, we produced 40% more stacks than we did in July. We are on track to double our stack production by the end of the year over 2021 levels. The factory also has functional flexibility and advantages we told you it would have. The manufacturing line is currently producing fuel cell stacks and electrolyzer stacks using the same equipment and same team members on the same lines. The commercial and operational advantages of this flexibility is huge and it is unique to the Bloom Energy Server platform and architecture. You will see the benefit of our on-time execution of the factory through better margins in Q4 as our volumes ramp up. Second, our technology is flexible. Different products that serve different customer needs run on the same basic technology. We have discussed the ease and speed with which we can adapt the platform to new applications. Now, I can point to our marine application to illustrate these points. We signed our first contract with Chantiers de l'Atlantique in June of last year and at that time said we plan to deploy on our first ship in Q3 of 2022. I I'm very pleased to say we did that with near-perfect execution. As of a few weeks ago, we are providing 150 kilowatts of power for MSC's New World Europa, the world's largest liquefied natural gas-powered cruise ship and one of the first to incorporate fuel cell technology. It is on its way to Doha, Qatar, to host guests during the World Cup. This is a sea change moment in this massive industry as it evolves towards a net zero and sustainable future. The industry wants clean vessels and in many cases, have been holding off ship purchases to wait for the perfect technologies even though they may still be years away. Bloom's Energy Server offers them a better solution that they can deploy today and a clear pathway to a net zero future. As Linden Coppell, Head of Sustainability and ESG at MSC Cruises, has said publicly, Bloom's fuel cells will reduce emissions of greenhouse gases substantially compared to conventional LNG engines without producing emissions of nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxides or particulates. She also recognized that Bloom's technology was future-proof. It is compatible with a low and zero carbon fuels of the future, such as green methanol, ammonia, synthetic LNG and hydrogen. This is why CDA and MSC adopted Bloom's technology. On the marine front, we believe our execution and success is leading to real momentum and we will have more to say in the coming months. Let me now turn it over to Greg to elaborate on our financial and operational performance and join you after that to answer your questions. Greg?

Thanks, KR. I agree with you. We had a very strong operating and financial quarter and are well positioned for the future. To begin, let me point to a few key highlights. We had a record third quarter total revenue of $292 million, up 41% versus the third quarter 2021 on increased product acceptance. We improved our liquidity through a successful completion of a secondary equity offering. We are on track for doubling our manufacturing capacity this year. We continue to see strong customer interest across our energy server and electrolyzers. We are reaffirming our 2022 guidance. With those as highlights, let me provide some additional context to our third quarter performance. Our ending cash balance for the third quarter was nearly $670 million, up over 100% versus the same quarter last year and compares favorably to our recourse debt of $294 million. In August, we executed a secondary offering of 15 million Class A shares. The deal was oversubscribed at $26 a share, yielding $389 million of gross proceeds. We also received notice from SK ecoplant that they were executing their second tranche option to purchase an additional 13.5 million Class A shares at $23.05 per share for gross proceeds of $311 million. They also will be converting their $10 million redeemable convertible preferred shares to Class A shares. The share purchase is subject to the completion of regulatory reviews and both conversion and the purchase are expected to close in the first quarter of 2023. Our partnership with SK ecoplant is strong and continues to find new avenues for growth. Our value proposition for the energy servers and electrolyzers is robust. The energy servers quickly bring additional resilient power to a client site while providing a pathway to decarbonize. Our customers need solutions today to reduce their carbon intensity while providing future optionality to move to on-site net zero solutions like hydrogen. In hydrogen production using our electrolyzer, we are engaging large-scale developers of hydrogen and green ammonia projects. As they build their project economics, they clearly value the demonstrated efficiency advantages of our high-temperature solid oxide technology and our manufacturing readiness that aligns with their time lines. The Inflation Reduction Act past this summer continues to be a tailwind across our business. Our third quarter total revenue of $292 million was driven by strong demand, with an increase in our manufacturing capacity. Product and service revenues were up nearly 50% versus the same quarter last year as we delivered 65% more acceptances. Our third quarter non-GAAP gross margins of 19% were roughly in line with the third quarter of 2021. Pricing continues to remain strong, while our unit costs are temporarily elevated by the commissioning of our new Fremont manufacturing facility. Our supply chain team is navigating the current pressured environment and continues to manage availability, inflation and lead times for our critical items. Like in the second quarter, as the number of builds increased versus the prior quarter, we saw a modest decrease in the unit costs quarter-over-quarter. We expect unit costs to decrease as we continue our manufacturing ramp. As a note, roughly 40% of our 2022 system build are being completed in the fourth quarter. We continue to invest in our manufacturing capacity, research and development and our commercial resources. Our engineering teams are developing our technology road map for electrolyzer, microgrid and future generations of our servers. In sales and marketing, we are adding resources to build our selling capability for electrolyzers, waste energy, data centers and broadening into international markets. Through the year, we've invested in inventories and capacity to meet demand. We've doubled our manufacturing capacity this year. As we exit 2022, we will have over 600 megawatts of fuel cell capacity, which when converted at the higher power rating, that's over 1.3 gigawatts of electrolyzer capacity. Next year, within our existing facilities, we plan to again double our capacity. As planned, we expect most fourth quarter acceptances and revenue to be domestic, which will benefit from the increase in ITC as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. During the fourth quarter, we plan to execute a repowering of PPA 4. The financial profile will be like the second quarter PPA 3A repowering with a noncash charge to accelerate amortization of the prior structure, a reduction in nonrecourse debt and product sales at an attractive margin. These repowerings of currently consolidated PPA structures are simplifying our financial reporting and strengthening our service platform. We are reaffirming our 2022 guidance for revenue, margins and cash flows. With our strong backlog and pipeline, we remain confident that we can deliver at least $1.1 billion of annual revenue. To achieve our margin plan, we will need fourth quarter non-GAAP gross margins to be about 30%. We have several paths to deliver these margins as our product costs reduce with increased output, higher ITC on domestic acceptances and a favorable price mix for our planned acceptances. By achieving the roughly 24% non-GAAP gross margins for 2022, we would expect to deliver positive non-GAAP operating margin and cash flows from operations. A note on CFOA. Historically, we have factored some of our receivables to align revenue and cash collections more closely. Given the rising interest rate environment and our strong cash position, we're reevaluating the economic value of this practice. Our current cash flow guidance assumes we continue to factor. And if we make a change, it will impact the timing of cash receipts in our 2022 CFOA guidance. In summary, we had a strong operational quarter and are building momentum into the fourth quarter in 2023. We've had significant tailwinds with the push for abundant, clean and resilient energy. We believe the company is at an inflection point to build upon our mature technology platform, solid record of accomplishment and robust growth road map. We are extremely excited about our future. With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

Absolutely. [Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Sam Burwell with Jefferies.

I was wondering if we could start off actually on the nuclear integration with solid oxide electrolyzers. And curious if there's anything on the horizon that we can expect to see you guys leverage out of the Westinghouse agreement?

So, first and foremost Sam, welcome to Bloom team coverage. We are glad to have you on board. And this is KR. So, we clearly, I think, the IML demonstration, which is what you're referring to and to bring everybody up to speed. We demonstrated using the Department of Energy that our electrolyzer is significantly, significantly, even our early iteration, 30% better in terms of energy efficiency, when we do heat integration with where we need to go with significant room on the upside. So, this is what got Westinghouse excited and this is where we form the relationship. Currently, as we sit here, we are jointly working with them on several opportunities. And again, as is tradition in Bloom, we will speak about it when something actually materializes and the customer allows us to speak about it. But we see this as a huge opportunity.

The next question is from the line of Michael Blum with Wells Fargo.

I wanted to ask in terms of hitting the guidance for the year, service margins are still a negative territory. So, I wonder if you could just speak to is part of the plan to get to these numbers for the year include service margins turning positive? And if so, what's going to drive that?

Michael, it's Greg. So, as we put the construct together this year around service, the biggest component of that service is product costs related to replacement power modules that we put into the fleet. The same issues that we've had, making sure that we continue to drive the cost down of our new product is the same thing that translates over into our service business. So, as we've been building out the Fremont facility and carrying more capacity than we were currently outputting and absorbing that, those unit costs for both the new product as well as for replacement modules has been somewhat elevated. Our expectation is, as we move through the remainder of this year and into next year and we're building more units, better absorption, lower product costs, you should see that in our new product business as well as our service business. If you look particularly within the fourth quarter around how we're building that framework, I would expect some improvement in our service margins given that, but there is still about a breakeven assumption within the business that we're still able to get to our full year guidance around gross margins.

And one more thing I'd add [ Sam ], when you think about -- this is KR is -- the following, right? Look at the fundamentals of the service business, as Greg said, we are seeing the lifetimes improve with time on our modules, which is key to the service. Our costs, while COVID-related, supply chain related, where in a standstill, we are going to get back to that treadmill of bringing the cost down quarter after quarter. That is going to happen. So, you put those things in place, if the life gets longer and the cost of replacement gets cheaper, clearly, the units we are shipping, we will see the costs come down. Now, there will be other pressures that we will be willingly taking, which is when we go into new territories, that will be in the early days with low volume, you will see that service will be a cost center there. But that is necessary for growth and we will do that. So, that's the balance you will see. But fundamentally, the thesis that we presented to you of service being accretive to the business as we go forward is solid and we stand by it.

The next question is from the line of Maheep Mandloi with Credit Suisse.

Congratulations on the ramp there. First, I just want to touch upon the revenue growth and the gross margin you're expecting in Q4, Greg, you talked about favorable mix of fire ASP projects. Could you just provide some more context around this? Is it some specific customers in the U.S. or like a PPA 4, PPF 5 simplification, which is driving that? And also just wanted to understand and I think in the Q, you've talked about ITC benefiting the Q3 revenues or higher ITC rather. So, how should we think about that in Q4?

Yes. Thanks, Maheep. So, a couple things impacting there. One is we've definitely seen an increase in our acceptances each quarter and thus an increase in our revenues each quarter as we've gone through the year and we brought Fremont stack manufacturing online. Stack manufacturing, as you know, has been our capacity constraint. We have more than enough capacity in our Newark, Delaware facility around assembly. It's really been about stack and we've built that out each quarter. Expectation, I think I have said it in the script, was we would expect about 40% of our annual builds this year to be done within the fourth quarter. So, that was really going to help us as we continue to drive forward to get to our revenue guidance on the year. Listen, on mix in ITC, for the quarter, as we look at the fourth quarter, we're very much focused on making sure that we can deliver the revenue against our backlog and pipeline to continue to grow our revenue to where our guidance is. We do see a path to get to our 24% gross margin targets for the year, really driven by a couple -- a few things. One is unit costs should continue to come down like it's come down every quarter so far this year as builds have been increased. We would expect to see those unit costs to come down and that's a margin improvement. The second thing is we've been shipping -- we've been prioritizing our shipments to SK ecoplant as part of their take-or-pay contract because we've been constrained. So, we wanted to make sure we could meet our requirements to them for the year. We've been shipping them through the course of the year and are nearly done on that. So, we've got a lot in the fourth quarter that is expected to get shipped to U.S. domestic customers, including the PPA for repowering that we're going to do within the fourth quarter. And ultimately, we've done that and when we've taken a look at our mix and to make sure that we can get to our targets this year, we have the flexibility and timing with a lot of our customers where we can pick and choose within a 90-day period around how we want that mix of acceptances to come. So, you may see within the fourth quarter a slightly above average -- average selling price as we continue to make sure that we can meet our commitments that we've made to everybody and get to the margin numbers that we've had and that will regulate as we get into 2023. Really encouraging thing about margins this year is price has been relatively flat over the last 5 or 6 quarters, and we've been able to hold price. And as cost is beginning to improve, you're beginning to see a margin improvement on our product management. In the third quarter, one thing that we're able to do, when ITC for 2022 went from 26% to 30%, we circled back with some of our financiers that we had U.S. domestic acceptances within 2022 and part of our good relationships with them were that we were able to make sure that, that upside that was coming through was shared equally between where customers were, where our financiers were and where we were. So, you saw about an $8 million benefit, I think as you read the Q, we talked about that we took within the third quarter. Given the domestic shipments within the fourth quarter, I would expect to see a number larger than that as we pull in and build our framework for Q4. So hopefully, there's not too much detail in there, but it gives you a sense of how we're thinking about our margins and how ITC benefits us for 2022.

The next question is from the line of Julien Dumoulin-Smith with Bank of America.

So first off, just keeping with the IRA focus, if I can, what geographies and applications are seeing greater retention? Clearly, commercial utility rates and demand charges going higher, ITC should be invigorating. Can you talk a little bit more about the backlog? And then related there, you all at the Analyst Day, talked a little bit about the interconnect opportunity. Utilities obviously having challenges. Data centers talking that up of late. Are you still seeing an opportunity for novel load which can't be met with utilities as you look at your backlog creation into 23%?

Yes. Julien, it's Greg. So, let me kick it off and what I miss, I'll ask KR to clean up for me. So listen, on IRA, we are still really encouraged by everything that we're seeing in there. Whether it is the ITC benefit on our core microgrid equipment or whether it's on the ITC benefit being extended into our biogas, waste-to-energy business and more of that product getting in. We're really encouraged about that as that helps our projects become more attractive to our customers. The 45Q credit around carbon capture were important to us. We've talked before, not only going from $50 to $85, but the size of the projects were before about 200 megawatts and now can get down into single megawatts, probably makes sense for us in the 20 megawatts to 30 megawatts, but a lot more opportunity to play in there. And then obviously, with the hydrogen PTC at $3 for our electrolyzer business within the U.S., given its performance for there, we're really excited about that. What I'd say generally about how we think about the IRA within our business across all those different applications, product lines and geographies within the U.S., I would say that our velocity within the deals that we've seen is definitely increasing. It has created some scarcity around resources and other things that we can use to our advantage to make sure that we're moving these deals through the system quickly. No big announcements to make for you or no insights into where we think where the backlog will be for the end of the year. But we're really excited about the activity we're seeing. And specifically about the interconnects and the time to power, listen, whether it is in the data center space, the advanced manufacturing space, including semiconductors, there is a tremendous need for power right now, whether it's from onshore, onshoring back to the U.S. of those activities or just the needs within data centers. And quite frankly, as they go to their local utilities which they've shared with previously around this is going to be their energy demand when they made the commitment to build in that location. They're being told that it is going to take several quarters, if not several years to get to the power that they needed. We've engaged several customers in that space. We're really encouraged about the velocity of those deals. And the focus really becomes around our manufacturing capability in that we have product that we can continue to bring -- that we can bring to their site quickly. 2 is the performance of our equipment that it can operate in what we call in a free bird, which is simply just not an interconnect in so we can bring power in and we don't have to go through that application process. And then ultimately, all everything comes back to our core value prop around the quality of our product, the sustainability of our electricity, the predictability and the resilience of it and that all plays very well within the market. So, we continue to see a lot of pickup there. We're still working through our normal fourth quarter that we have around here, but we're really encouraged about the velocity of deals that we're seeing.

Julien, I would add to that a couple of things, right? When you look at that growth because of onshoring of manufacturing and data centers and look at specific hotspots in the country, where that gap between supply and projected demand is in the hundreds of megawatts. That could be a dual play. The dual play is, like Greg mentioned, it could be a free bird, a self-operating microgrid that supplies power for that customer. The other one could be in front of the meter working with the utilities being able to provide the utility with the tools to put this power for their customer. But as they bring transmission distribution and as they alleviated, thanks to our skid mounted platforms, they can move those around where they need to move. So this must be super attractive for a utility to be interested. So not only are we talking to potential customers in our funnel, we are also engaged with utilities to say, how can we partner? And this should be a win for the utilities, number 1. The other question you asked in IRA and Greg alluded to this, biogas and waste to power, right? Waste to power, and I'll tell you, we have seen an order of magnitude increase in the funnel that we are seeing because of IRA. So I'll tell you, it's somewhere between 200 and 300 megawatts worth of funnel inquiry that we have in the -- like waste to power market. These are project developers. Many of these are brand-new trying to utilize all the IRA benefits. What will actually materialize, what will not, time will tell. But we clearly see a 200 to 300 megawatt funnel out there in terms of opportunities. So super exciting.

The next question is from the line of Martin Malloy with Johnson Rice.

I wanted to ask about the Taylor Farms press release that you had during the quarter. I thought that was particularly interesting. And maybe if you could just give any insights that you can into the customers' thought process and leaving the grid and going with Bloom Servers? And if you're seeing similar kinds of inquiries from other industrial users?

Martin, this is KR. Thanks for asking that question. Look, Taylor Farms is a great example for us of a repeat customer who started very small with us and grew with us as we went along. For people that are not familiar with the name. If you go to a grocery store and buy a good salad mix, chances are that's the Taylor Farms packaged salads, okay? They are the country's largest provider of this. So very, very large footprint, serving a very important need for the country. Now, they are a fantastic example of what again we are seeing with our current electricity system. These farms and where these packaging plants are, typically at the very end of the line in rural areas. As the energy system is getting constrained, the electricity system is getting constrained, even on a good day, the quality and the reliability of the power that they have at the end of the line is terrible and God forbid things like PSPS happen, which they have experienced for days on end, they don't have power. And the amount of damage it does to their ability to do business is profound. And therefore, they wanted a micro grid that was completely independent of the grid, and they could just operate. And this was the requirement. And what we have always said is, when you combine our baseload power with a little bit of energy storage, with a little bit of engines, if you need it, with solar, you put all that together, you get the Goldilocks of electricity, okay? And what you get is energy security, economic security and environmental stewardship. If we put the 3 together, that is -- Taylor Farms is an example of where we believe in their strong conviction, the rest of the -- like business world is going to go when they realize what is needed.

The next question is from the line of Noel Parks with Tuohy Brothers.

I wanted to touch a bit more back on biogas. You've talked about the funnel of inquiries you have and just how big it is in the waste to power space. I recall you having some optimism earlier in the year that it would be a big second half for that business line. So I wonder if you could just expand a little bit on that. Are the drivers pretty much everything you anticipated? Of course, IRA is helpful. And do you have any sense about what trajectory the growth might take as you cross into next year?

Look, that's a great question. We are -- yes, when we talked about the IRA, and the benefits that it had created for taking what would be a problem in that methane from the waste going into the atmosphere, and converting that into an opportunity. Everything was lined up there, right? So that story, absolutely holds. And we are seeing that more people are realizing that is not only a good thing to do for the environment, it's a good thing to do for their wallet. Is that okay? And then those 2 things combined, market takes off. So there are 2 aspects of this waste energy that I want to focus. One aspect of the waste to energy is, whether it's landfill, whether it is like dairy farms, and like animal waste, and all that, there you would see that our systems require minimal cleanup, our systems don't need to be very large. And for the amount of biomethane, that you've produced, they will deliver the maximum amount of electricity under the same. For those reasons, we are the preferred choice by most developers in this field, whether it's a wastewater treatment plant, whether it's a dairy farm, anybody else, right? So that's the value proposition there. We see multiple opportunities there. In places like wastewater treatment, it's also a resiliency play, because should there be a big national disaster and the grid not operate, they're eating their own dog food, right? So they're able to make methane and then convert that to electricity and operate their -- like wastewater treatment plant, and that resiliency brings a fantastic advantage. But then you go to the other side of the clean fuel credits, whether it's [indiscernible], LCFS, it's all that there is a very strong formula on CI score. And these are very large projects being developed in the Midwest, for example. And even though they have to pay a slightly higher premium to use Bloom's electricity, by using Bloom's electricity as opposed to the grid, they lower their CI score. And the advantage they get on the biofuel is significantly greater than the premium they pay for the electricity. So we have 8 to 10 projects between all these. We are actively working on right now. So while it's difficult for me to handicap for you, and even if I could, I won't give you a number as you know. From that 200 to 300 megawatts, we would expect a pretty reasonable chunk to actually go into contract next year.

The next line -- the next question is from the line of Kashy Harrison with Piper Sandler.

Just 2 quick ones for me. I was wondering if you guys could give us a sense of your current system contract value backlog. I know it's the metric you typically provide annually, but I was wondering if maybe we could get a sneak peek of where it stands today. And then also, looks like non-GAAP OpEx picked up quarter-over-quarter because of investments. And is maybe tracking up 25% year-over-year versus revenues up about 20%-ish. And so, just wondering how you guys are thinking about operating leverage entering 2023.

Listen on GAAP and OpEx, right, so as we went through and looked at where we needed to make investments in the company, clearly we are investing in R&D. That's both in engineers to develop projects, but materials that they can use in the laboratory. And we are putting a foot to the accelerator to make sure that especially post IRA that we can bring these products to market resiliently and hardened quickly from the team. So we've definitely put an accelerator to our technical team to go do. On the commercial side, listen, we're continuing to build out our capability, whether it is with resources in the sale of our hydrogen electrolyzers, in the waste energy that KR was just speaking about, to utilities or to building out our international platform, we are adding resources to there. And then lastly, on making sure that we are running this business in a controlled fashion as you would expect us to make sure we have the resources we have in place, we've done that. With each quarter, there's a few things that pop through on the OpEx that were one-timers or things you hadn't planned on. There was a couple that came through this quarter. But from a discipline standpoint, this business is all about getting from, as you said, the low-20s as a -- OpEx as a percentage of revenue to that 15% OpEx as a percentage of revenue by the middle part of this decade. And we're committed to do that. There was a bit of catch-up we had made over the last couple of years. And as we pull our plans together this year, KR, my expectation is, we won't continue to grow at that rate and get to see some operating leverage out of it. But clearly we've made sure that we are -- if we're going to err, we're going to err on the side of growth and being able to sell our project and control our product. But we ought to get some operating leverage to your point, especially as we move into next year, given the revenue expectations that we see. In regards to our bookings in the sneak peek, I invite you back in 90 days when we do our year-end call. And we'll be happy to lay out then what a great success the team has had on landing the opportunities for this year. And I'll say no more other than I'll see you in 90 days on that one.

The next question is from the line of Alex Kania with Wolfe Research.

Just thinking about your cash balance, turning to positive, I guess, plus or minus operating cash flow, I guess, depending on the accounting towards the end of the year and then also the additional cash sitting in the beginning part of next year. Just kind of thinking about, how are you looking at kind of capital investment, kind of in this environment? And kind of, if you like, which is the evolving backlog that you've got. Are you already thinking about the need to add new manufacturing capacity?

Alex, it's Greg. So, listen, on the cash balance in part around the secondary, a lot of that was to make sure that we had properly capitalized to display, not only to our supply chain, but to developers or projects, especially as we've gotten into some more complicated that we had the substantial financial resources to be able to participate at the level that we needed to. And we wanted to signal to the supply chain that we are increasing our capacity significantly and we have the financial wherewithal to encourage them to invest. And that was the primary reason that we did the secondary over the summer in August. On capital investment, we're very focused on bringing the Fremont facility up this year and next year. So where we were about 300 megawatts of total stack capacity at the end of last year, we'll be 600 megawatts of total stack capacity on a fuel cell basis. And that's over a gigawatt of electrolyzer capacity that we have, as of today, based on the investments that we've been able to make so far this year. We'll continue to bring those online next year. And the investment for it is about $200 million. And from that we'll be up -- we'll double our capacity again next year on that same $200 million that we've been investing this year and next year. So the payback on that is incredibly attractive at 6 to 8 months and we'll go from there. So far, we think after we've gotten that manufacturing capacity in Fremont, we're encouraging the team that they can be able to get more capacity out of that same facility going forward. We don't think we stop at the gigawatt a fuel cell capacity, or the 2.5 gigawatts of electrolyzer capacity in Fremont. But to the extent we need to build another factory down the road in a different location, we're glad to know that we have the financial wherewithal to make those investment decisions. And once you've got the building, it's fairly quick to make those investment decisions. So it's about 6 to 8 months to bring it online. And once you get it fully utilized, its 6 to 8 months to get it done.

Alex, one more thing that I want to add to what Greg, like told you. Like question was, would we continue to invest to double the capacity next year? The answer is absolutely yes. And while we understand the context of the economic environment that we're all seeing in the macro, just look at electricity and look at the drivers for the demand, whether it is electrification of transportation, whether it is digitization and datacenter growth, whether it is waste to energy, and that being an opportunity that's already been created, whether it is electrolyzers, or the PTC. From their reset, this is not going to slow down for us. The astronomical pace at which it needs to happen may come down a little bit down to earth, but you'll still be huge growth opportunity. And both with the previous question on our OpEx, as well as this question on our CapEx. We are going to meet the moment. That's the reason why we raised the money. And we are sitting with a product and a platform that is relevant for today, relevant for tomorrow, relevant for the long-term future. So, we're in a -- and we see nothing but opportunity and we will continue to invest both in building the team, as well as investing in the CapEx to go lead and be the lead player in this transmission.

The next question is from the line of Sangita Jain with KeyBanc.

Can you share with us how Bloom is participating in the various hydrogen hub proposals that are being prepared for submission to the DOE?

We are in active conversations with multiple hubs. And again, these are the hubs keep, how they talk about and which hubs who participates fairly competitive at this stage. So I don't know that I'm at a liberty to talk about which hubs. But trust us there are multiple hubs competing. And I think when it comes to hydrogen, I have used this before, I think in the last call, we sell the [indiscernible] to the people who want to go hunt for [ them gold ], okay? So we are participating with anybody and everybody that wants our superior electrolyzer to put together a superior proposal to them.

The next question is from the line of Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer.

Could you speak to the improvement in yields that you're getting out of that California facility at this point?

The improvement in yields?

Yes, out of the factory. How that's trending?

Yes, listen, it's a copy exact pace process, right? So the same printer technology, the same furnace technologies, the same manufacturing processes, the same part go through both our Sunnyvale factory, that go through our Fremont facility. And in some cases, as we brought the Fremont facility on, we were using both facilities to create stacks as we brought that process through. So it's not as there's not a different manufacturing process nor a different outcome between what we get out of Fremont versus what we get out of Sunnyvale. The capacity that we've been able to add has really been amazing over the course of the year. And this is really speaks to the ability of the team to bring this tooling on place very quickly. Kudos to the team that built the original manufacturing line, that they've been able to bring these processes in and build out this manufacturing line. And we've got it 95% up, and we'll have the remainder up by this year. And we'll add, like 2 more lines next year. But our expectation is that, the yield from it from a process standpoint, will be equivalent to where we had in the first place. While we always look to improve that with automation, in improving our manufacturing processes, we spend a lot of time on that is way to help drive an improvement in quality, as well as a reduction in cost. But no real difference between the California facilities.

And one very important thing, if you're thinking about it this way, right? Our copy exact, but also our modular technology, right? Means that it is giving you not an on/off function or starting a new factory. You keep adding capacity every week, every month as a new tool comes onboard. So if I were to give you the example, right, in our Fremont factory, bringing tools on every month means that in October, we were able to produce 17% more fuel cells than in September. 25% more than in August, and 40% more than in July. So every week, every month as we go on, we keep ramping up from that 1x to 2x. So by the end of the year, we will be at 2x the capacity of where we were. So this is a low-risk approach to scaling [ our output ].

The next question is from the line of Ameet Thakkar with BMO Capital.

Maybe a quick one for Greg. But it looks like the installation margins were like 140 basis point drag on gross margins this quarter. And that's been kind of you guys have said that this is kind of going away. And you can kind of see that it's kind of fading. Is that like another kind of potential kind of tailwind for you guys in the fourth quarter? Is that kind of like basically kind of ceased by the fourth quarter?

Yes, it's a good question, Ameet. So we are definitely engaging more and more with EPC partners here in the U.S. They're taking this work away from us, and they're bringing their expertise to help drive lead times with the customers, as well as to improve the profitability, given that it's their core competency and not ours. I think if you look at particularly at the fourth quarter, though, the one thing I'd caution you on is, you probably going to see something very similar to what we saw on the third quarter, just given the amount of U.S. domestic installations that we're going to do. So while we may improve on each project and our expectation with the [indiscernible] team is that they will, but just you'll nominally have more deals in the U.S. in the fourth quarter. So it'll be there. Over the long-term, right, the way we get to our margin levels at 30% by the middle of this decade is, we continue to make the product at the profitability we are now. We get service profitable, and we make install a smaller part of the overall P&L. So even if it loses a few dollars, it doesn't impact our margins negatively going forward. So it remains a key part of our framework and on improving our margins.

The last question today is from the line of Jeff Osborne with Cowen and Company.

Just curious on 2 things. One, any commentary you have on pricing, in particular on the electrolyzer side? I'm just curious what you're seeing as you're going out bidding projects.

What was your second one, Jeff, so we can get them both and get them answered?

Certainly. And I hopped on a few minutes late, so I don't know if it's in the prepared remarks you addressed. Eversource's comments earlier in the week on gas shortages. How we should think about that? What your exposure is to the Northeast?

Yes. Great. Listen, on pricing on electrolyzers, I will tell you, our view on this remained -- this is not a [ BOM ] plus x1.4 targeting a 40% margin business. Our technology, we think is proven out to be second to none around efficiencies. We're somewhere between 15% to 30%, maybe even 40%, if we can find access sources of heat to bring in displace the need for electricity within there. And since 80 -- the 70% to 80% of the cost of breaking water and creating hydrogen is going to be the input energy costs. We think we've got a competitive advantage. As we look to build our pricing over the long-term, we're going to value price, meaning as we pull together with project developers, whether they're doing ammonia, whether -- green ammonia, whether they're doing clean hydrogen, whether they are manufacturers that are decarbonizing using our technology on-site, we're going to look to create value for them and share value from them. So I do not -- I don't generally get into the discussions of how many hundreds of dollars per kilowatt will our electrolyzer be. And how do we compete versus alkaline versus PEM. To us, it's not the right discussion to go have. This is all about creating value for our customers, and making sure that their projects get to their economic hurdles, and we think we can do that while we meet our economic hurdles on it. So we're excited about it. On the gas side, clearly, I didn't read, particularly on the Eversource. But we spend a lot of time talking to the gas companies in the U.S., and there is a process here that they are getting a lot of phone calls and a lot of demand. It's the second order question when -- first when the local utilities can't provide the electricity and people begin to say how do I then do on-site generation, whether it's with a fuel cell or some other type of technology that they're getting asked to do a lot going forward. We see it as a short-term issue. And we think we can work our way through it. We found the community to be incredibly engaging, and in problem solving. And the projects are not -- I'm going to say this right, are not LCOE-driven in most cases, it's really about a time to power in the missed opportunity. So there is opportunity here and value the creation that allows you maybe to spend a little bit of money in the short-term to get power to them, while the overall deal hurdles for everybody, but that's the focus. Maybe not saving the last $0.07 on the length of pipe. It's really about how quickly we move that process forward. So I hope that answers your question, Jeff. I'm going to turn it over to KR, we're right at the top of the hour and let you close out here for the team.

Thank you, Greg, and thank you all for taking the time to join us today. As you can tell, we are super excited about the opportunity and -- in front of us. And you've seen us tell you what we will do in terms of, not just what the product can do, not in terms of the revenue we can generate, but also in terms of our -- the ability of our platform to be versatile, and be able to plug into so many applications. The marine application that we just talked about during the prepared remarks is an example of that. But we see very similar stories in our other growth drivers we have spoken to you about. In terms of the overall demand in the marketplace, we think the electricity demand is going to continue to be robust. And there is going to be in specific areas that are extremely well suited for Bloom. There is a big supply-demand mismatch, and it's all about the time to power. We see that as a huge opportunity. And we continue to be thankful and amazed at the execution of our team in delivering on time, development projects, production capability, supply chain readiness and being able to deliver to a customer. All this put together, we are excited about the future and look forward to talking to you in 90 days about how we finish the year. Thank you.

Thank you.

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines.