T1 Energy Inc. (TE)

T1 makes solar panels, photovoltaic (PV) modules, in Texas and sells them only in the US market. Its plant in Wilmer, Texas, called G1_Dallas, has seven assembly lines and a nameplate capacity of five gigawatts a year, about 4.5 of them for utility-scale modules and 0.5 for commercial, industrial and residential ones, built with PERC and TOPCon, two high-efficiency cell designs. The plant started up during 2025 and reached full production in the fourth quarter. Its buyers are mainly developers of utility-scale solar projects, the largest segment of the US market, along with commercial, industrial and residential users. 22232425262728

How it operates

T1 makes solar panels, photovoltaic (PV) modules, in Texas and sells them only in the US market. Its plant in Wilmer, Texas, called G1_Dallas, has seven assembly lines and a nameplate capacity of five gigawatts a year, about 4.5 of them for utility-scale modules and 0.5 for commercial, industrial and residential ones, built with PERC and TOPCon, two high-efficiency cell designs. The plant started up during 2025 and reached full production in the fourth quarter. Its buyers are mainly developers of utility-scale solar projects, the largest segment of the US market, along with commercial, industrial and residential users. 22232425262728

Its business runs through Trina Solar, the China-based solar company it bought the plant from in December 2024. Trina's US arm markets and sells the modules made at G1_Dallas for commissions and supports the plant's operations for a fee of 5% of its adjusted EBITDA, meaning earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, and the Trina Group supplies materials and components: purchases from it came to 474.0 million dollars in 2025. Module sales to the Trina Group came to 632.2 million dollars, recorded as related-party sales, and one customer took 78% of 2025 net sales, after 100% in 2024. 293031323334353637

It is building a US supply chain around the plant: polysilicon, the raw material of solar cells, from Hemlock Semiconductor, wafers from Corning and steel frames from Nextpower, with cells to come from its own planned factory. For 2026 it has bought cells for part of its production from a supplier that certified it is not a prohibited foreign entity, and it warns that several key raw materials and components are single-sourced or come from a limited number of suppliers. 383940

The specifics

T1 began as FREYR Battery: FREYR AS, a Norwegian company, combined with Alussa Energy Acquisition Corp. in July 2021 under a Luxembourg holding company, and a redomiciliation in 2023 made FREYR Battery, Inc. its successor; the company is now a Delaware corporation. It bought Trina Solar's US module business on December 23, 2024, renamed itself T1 Energy in February 2025, and now reports its European businesses and its Coweta County, Georgia project as discontinued operations. It is based in Austin, Texas. 174134243294445

Tax law shapes the business. The 45X production credit pays about 7 cents per watt for each module made in the United States and sold to a third party, and in December 2025 the company agreed to sell about 160.0 million dollars of credits generated in 2025 for 145.6 million. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted July 4, 2025, bars prohibited foreign entities from those credits, so on December 29, 2025 it restructured its ties with Trina: it paid off the Trina Solar AG note, ended Trina's right to appoint a covered officer, and now licenses its technology from Evervolt, a Singapore company that bought the patents from Trina. It says Trina's shareholding has never exceeded the 25% limit. 464748495051525354

It names First Solar, Canadian Solar, JinkoSolar and Hanwha Qcells as its largest US competitors, and notes that only First Solar and Hanwha Qcells have significant cell production in the United States. First Solar sued T1 in early 2026, claiming it infringes a patent by importing certain solar cells, and asked the International Trade Commission to bar imports of infringing products, which First Solar says include TOPCon cells; T1 contests the claims. 55565758

Other disputes: RWE Investco EPC MGMT sued a T1 subsidiary and Trina's US arm in December 2025 over a long-term offtake agreement, a contract to buy its modules, and T1 is suing RWE Aktiengesellschaft to enforce its guaranty of up to 100 million dollars. US Customs has billed about 25.4 million dollars of alleged antidumping duties on 2024 imports by an entity acquired from Trina, which T1 says would be indemnified. In November 2025 the company and one of its executives, also a director, received grand jury subpoenas from the Justice Department about that person's sales of company shares in the second half of 2023. And at the end of 2025 management found a material weakness in internal controls at its G1 entity. 5960616263

What drives growth, line by line

2025 was T1's first full year as a solar manufacturer: net sales, all from PV modules, rose to 755.3 million dollars from 2.9 million in 2024, and 358.6 million came in the fourth quarter. To keep the 45X credit on inventory before the new rules took effect on January 1, 2026, it sold all inventory that would not comply into a weaker than expected market at the end of 2025, at lower realizations than it expected. Gross profit was 55.6 million dollars, but the operating loss was 234.6 million and the net loss 367.8 million, after 74.5 million of commissions, royalties and selling costs paid to the Trina Group, a write-off of part of its acquired customer contracts, and interest and fair value charges. 64656667686970

Net sales - related party. Sales to the Trina Group came to 586,832 thousand dollars, after deducting 45.4 million of amortization on a favorable customer contract acquired with the plant; the module sales underneath were 632.2 million dollars. Deferred revenue from offtake agreements with the Trina Group stood at 56.7 million dollars at the end of 2025. 713672

Net sales. Sales to customers outside the Trina Group came to 168,463 thousand dollars in 2025; there were none the year before. 71

What comes next, in the company's own words: it believes all its inventory and sales in 2026 will comply with the new rules and expects all the cells it sources to be compliant; it expects to start producing cells in the fourth quarter of 2026 at the first 2.1 gigawatt phase of G2_Austin, its cell factory in Milam County, Texas, at an estimated capital cost of 400 to 425 million dollars, on a site planned for 5.3 gigawatts; and it expects a new warranty framework for T1-branded modules, backed by third-party insurance, to be in place in the second quarter of 2026, since Trina no longer warrants them. 7374757677

The read's section on the people who run it is on the People tab.

What the desk infers Inferred

1. Inferred

   The single customer that took 78% of 2025 net sales is almost certainly the Trina Group, so the China-based company that sold T1 its plant was also its main buyer.

   Because

   • One customer accounted for 78% of net sales in 2025 and 100% in 2024. 37
   • Related-party sales to the Trina Group were 586,832 thousand dollars of total net sales of 755,295 thousand in 2025, and 2,942 thousand, the whole of the year's sales, in 2024. 7136
   • Trina's US arm handles the marketing and sales of the modules made at G1_Dallas. 3032
   Confidence 85 of 100Wrong if A filing that names the customer behind the 78% as a company outside the Trina Group.
2. Inferred

   Through 2025 the Wilmer plant assembled its modules largely from cells bought from the Trina Group, which is why it had to sell off inventory that would fail the new foreign entity rules before 2026 and find a new cell supplier.

   Because

   • It bought 474.0 million dollars of materials and components from the Trina Group in 2025. 35
   • Its own cell factory is not expected to produce until the fourth quarter of 2026. 74
   • It sold all inventory that would not comply after December 31, 2025, into a market absorbing modules with non-compliant cells from prohibited foreign entities. 66
   • For 2026 it bought cells from a supplier certified as not a prohibited foreign entity, and a Trina wafer company in Vietnam is a party to its commercial agreements. 3978
   Confidence 70 of 100Wrong if A filing showing that most cells used at G1_Dallas in 2025 came from suppliers outside the Trina Group.
3. Inferred

   In 2025 the plant's gross profit came from the 45X production credit: without the credit, which is booked against cost of sales, the modules would have sold for less than they cost to make.

   Because

   • Its cost of sales is offset by the 45X credits it generates. 79
   • It generated about 160.0 million dollars of 45X credits in 2025. 47
   • Its gross profit for 2025 was 55.6 million dollars on net sales of 755.3 million. 64
   • Its year-end sales of non-compliant inventory realized less than it expected. 66
   Confidence 70 of 100Wrong if A filing showing that the 45X credits offset in 2025 cost of sales were smaller than the year's gross profit.