Key points
- T1 Energy (TE) closed up 18.7% at $4.95 on a 641 MW module order from Clearway, then reached $5.28 after the bell.
- First Solar (FSLR) rose 10.3% on post-earnings target raises, and every solar name we checked finished higher.
- TE is still 60% below the $12.49 it reached on June 4.
T1 Energy (TE) closed Monday at $4.95, up 18.7% from Friday's $4.17. About 56.4 million shares traded, against a 30-day average near 39.6 million.
The stock kept climbing after the bell. It reached $5.28 in the post-market session and sat at $5.20 at 7:17 p.m. Eastern, 24.7% above Friday's close. Only about 324,000 shares changed hands there, and T1 released nothing after the close.
Before the open, the Austin company said it had signed Clearway Energy Group to take 641 megawatts of solar modules. The modules come off T1's 5 GW G1_Dallas line. The cells come from G2_Austin, the fab T1 is still building. Neither company disclosed financial terms.
"We are pleased to be signing a strategic partnership with Clearway, a leading energy developer that is adding needed gigawatts to U.S. grids," said Dan Barcelo, T1's chairman and chief executive.
Frances Cook, vice president of procurement at Clearway, said contracts "with top-tier manufacturers like T1 help ensure that Clearway can deliver on our ambitious development pipeline with competitive and reliable projects."
T1 expects to sell modules with more than 60% domestic content in 2027. Phase 1 of G2_Austin is 2.1 GW of cell capacity. It's scheduled to start producing cells in the first quarter of 2027.
Solar stocks rose across the board
TE opened at $4.45, up 6.7% on the announcement. The other 12 points came during the session, while the rest of the solar group was rising.
First Solar (FSLR) closed up 10.3% at $232.82 after a run of price-target increases. Guggenheim went to $282 from $279 and Citi to $297 from $294. Freedom Broker raised its target to $280. Barclays kept its buy rating and Jefferies stayed at hold with a $196 target.
First Solar earned $3.92 a share in the second quarter against a $2.83 consensus. It reported those numbers on July 30. Contracted backlog now stands at 45.1 GW and $13.6 billion through 2030.
The other thing hanging over the group is the Section 232 tariff decision on polysilicon, which favors manufacturers that don't buy Chinese crystalline silicon. Roth Capital Partners said in June that the decision had slipped to August. The rest of the market rose Monday too. The S&P 500 gained 1.5% and the Nasdaq 100 added 1.8%.
| Stock | Aug 3 close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| T1 Energy (TE) | $4.95 | +18.7% |
| First Solar (FSLR) | $232.82 | +10.3% |
| SolarEdge (SEDG) | $45.13 | +9.5% |
| Array Technologies (ARRY) | $5.68 | +8.8% |
| Shoals Technologies (SHLS) | $9.36 | +7.1% |
| Sunrun (RUN) | $10.44 | +6.4% |
| Enphase Energy (ENPH) | $39.37 | +4.9% |
| Invesco Solar ETF (TAN) | $51.24 | +3.9% |
| JinkoSolar (JKS) | $15.72 | +3.8% |
| Canadian Solar (CSIQ) | $15.51 | +2.9% |
| Nextracker (NXT) | $90.59 | +0.8% |
Trina's stake in T1 keeps shrinking
T1 bought the G1_Dallas plant from Trina Solar, and the Chinese manufacturer's holding in T1 has moved in both directions since. Trina Solar (Schweiz) AG bought 4,274,704 more shares at $1.70 apiece on January 21, using anti-dilution rights it got in the plant deal. That took it to 53,152,664 shares, or 19.6%. Four months later it sold 22.5 million of them, on May 21 and 22, at prices between $7.74 and $9.43 for about $190.3 million. That left 30,652,664 shares, or 11.0%.
Section 45X of the tax code pays U.S. manufacturers a per-watt credit. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act cuts that credit off for a foreign entity of concern, meaning a company with too much ownership, debt or control tied to a covered nation such as China. T1 said on December 30 that it had amended its charter to cap that kind of ownership and repaid enough Trina debt to fall under the threshold. Trina also gave up its contractual right to appoint a covered officer. T1 said the point of all of it was keeping its 45X eligibility for 2026.
Then on July 28, T1 paid $135 million for the TOPCon patents it had been licensing from Evervolt Green Energy Holding. Evervolt is a Singapore company that bought those patents from Trina in 2025. The deal "eliminates future royalty payments now that T1 owns and controls the IP it previously licensed from Evervolt," the company said.
TE hit $12.49 on June 4 and $3.63 on July 29. Monday's close is 60% under that high and 33% above the July 29 close of $3.72. The stock was already down 58% from its June 2 level by July 24, when the whole group was still falling.
T1 said on July 28 that second-quarter sales would come in between $245 million and $255 million on about 835 MW of shipments. It put the net loss from continuing operations at $34 million to $37 million. It also raised the G2_Austin budget 20% and blamed Texas data center construction for bidding up labor and equipment. Roth MKM kept a buy rating on July 29. Alliance Global cut its target to $7 from $8.50 the same day. On July 30, T1 sold $120 million of 4.75% convertible senior notes due 2031 to fund the first phase of G2_Austin.
The Evervolt payments run through October. T1 owes $133 million on top of a $2 million option premium it already paid:
- $60 million within three business days of closing
- $25 million on September 30
- $30 million on October 15
- $18 million on October 30
Each one can be settled in cash, stock, or a mix. Any shares go out at a 15% discount to a five-day volume-weighted average.
Situational Awareness, the fund run by Leopold Aschenbrenner, sold public equity holdings to Citadel in a single block on July 29 and 30. CNBC's David Faber reported the sale. Aschenbrenner's letter to partners described it as a portion of the public book, done to remove leverage. T1 was in the fund's March 31 filing at $43.9 million. All 19 stocks the fund owned outright rose the day the sale was reported, and TE has gained 33% since.
Barcelo said the patent purchase advances T1's strategy "to build America's first fully integrated domestic silicon-based solar supply chain." The first cells out of G2_Austin aren't scheduled until the first quarter of 2027.
Prices are Monday, August 3, 2026 closes, with after-hours quotes as of 7:17 p.m. Eastern. Nothing here is investment advice.
