Interview with Desmond Wheatley, the President and CEO of Envision Solar International (EVSI), Interviews with The Wall Street Transcript
67 WALL STREET, New York - August 19, 2013 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its Alternative Energy Report offering a timely review of the sector to serious investors and industry executives. This special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs and Equity Analysts. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
Topics covered: Grid Parity Timelines for Alternative Energy - Asia Pacific Demand for Solar Energy - Alternative Energy Generation - Solar Energy Pricing - Government Subsidies and Regulation - Solar Growth Drivers and Headwinds - Regulatory Headwinds for U.S. Utilities
Companies include: Envision Solar International (EVSI) and many more.
In the following excerpt from the Alternative Energy Report, the President and CEO of Envision Solar International (EVSI) discusses company strategy and the outlook for this vital industry:
TWST: Do you think the investment community has a good understanding of your story? What would you like people to know or to better understand about you?
Mr. Wheatley: We are a company with the word "solar" in our name, and that has good connotations and bad connotations. The solar industry itself, if you look at the public company comps out there, up until the last few months was not doing very well. It was highly commoditized, cost-based selling. Most of the public companies come with gross margins in the single digits if not losing money at the gross margin line and seemingly little opportunity for growth. And so there is no question in my mind that we've been tarred by that brush.
Now, the truth is, and this is why I would like the investment community to know that, far from being negatively impacted from that move, we actually benefit from it. We benefit from it because those components which are produced by those companies with those lower margins are actually cost contributors to our end product. Our end product is unique and is not subject to the same commodity-type selling that the comps are recognized for and so as these public companies with these low margins produce more higher-quality product with a lower cost, so then we get lower-cost components that we then integrate into our end product, which means that makes it easier for us and less expensive for us to produce a higher-quality product every time this happens. So I think that's a misunderstanding.
We are not in the commodity side of the business. We are in the value-added side of the business; we produce a unique product that has multiple layers of value that goes far beyond competing with the utility and which is a typical solar model - I'll sell electricity cheaper than the utility can, we don't do that. We build high-quality, architecturally accretive structures that bring a great deal of value to our customers beyond simply the fact that they will save them on electricity if they do that too. And so I think, that's something that I would really like the investment community to understand - do not look at us as a commodity play subject to the same pressures that the other public companies with solar in their names are subject to. But beyond that, also just understand that there is a whatever sometimes is in the popular presses are very bright future for renewable energy anyway, and that is actually being evidenced in some of the public companies in our space as we are going to see growth.
There is nothing but a massive opportunity ahead of us, and...
For more of this interview and many others visit the Wall Street Transcript - a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs, portfolio managers and research analysts. This special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
