First Solar Q4 2025 Earnings Report

First Solar EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $4.84
• Consensus EPS: $5.22
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$0.38
• One Year Ago EPS: $3.65

First Solar Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $1.68 billion
• Expected Revenue: $1.59 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$92.66 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +11.10%

First Solar Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2025
• Date: 2/24/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 4:30PM ET

First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) (NASDAQ: FSLR) is a United States–based solar technology company best known for designing and manufacturing thin‑film photovoltaic (PV) modules that use cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor technology. The company supplies PV modules and delivers integrated solar power solutions for utility‑scale projects, positioning itself as a provider of both components and complete solar energy systems rather than solely a parts supplier. First Solar was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.

Beyond module manufacturing, First Solar offers a range of project services including development support, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services, and operations and maintenance (O&M) for large-scale solar installations. The company emphasizes lifecycle management for its products, including a take‑back and recycling program for end‑of‑life CdTe modules intended to recover materials and limit environmental impact. First Solar’s business model combines manufacturing scale with downstream project capabilities to participate across the solar value chain.

First Solar serves customers and project developers globally, participating in utility‑scale solar markets across North America, Europe, and other regions where large PV installations are deployed. Its integrated approach targets power producers, independent developers and institutional customers seeking turnkey solar solutions. The company has positioned itself around large-scale deployments and industrialized manufacturing to pursue cost reductions and project delivery at scale while stressing environmental stewardship through recycling and product lifecycle initiatives.

First Solar Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: First Solar reported a strong 2025 with a record 17.5 gigawatts of modules sold, net sales of $5.2 billion, diluted EPS of $14.21, and year-end net cash of $2.4 billion, all at or above guidance.
• Neutral Sentiment: 2026 guidance shows resilience—net sales $4.9–$5.2 billion and adjusted EBITDA $2.6–$2.8 billion—but results are heavily dependent on monetizing about $2.1–$2.19 billion of Section 45X tax credits included in gross margin assumptions.
• Positive Sentiment: Management expects the current policy, tariff and trade actions (AD/CVD, FEOC, Section 232) and active IP enforcement to be a net competitive tailwind for First Solar versus many crystalline-silicon suppliers, and it filed an ITC petition seeking exclusion of alleged infringing TOPCon imports.
• Positive Sentiment: Technology roadmap advanced—commercial rollout of the CuRe semiconductor begins factory-by-factory (Ohio lead line in Q1) with claims of up to ~8% higher lifetime specific energy vs TOPCon, and perovskite development (Oxford PV license, pilot line targeted early 2027) remains on track.
• Negative Sentiment: Near-term operational and cost headwinds include significant underutilization of Southeast Asia Series‑6 capacity, forecasted ramp/underutilization and setup costs (~$115–$155M and $110–$120M), high warehousing (~$200M) and net tariff impact (~$125–$135M), plus a recorded $50M warranty liability and backlog shrinkage to 50.1 GW.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good afternoon, and welcome to First Solar's Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings and 2026 guidance call. This call is being webcast live on the Investors section of First Solar's website at investor.firstsolar.com. All participants are in listen-only mode, and please note that today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Byron Jeffers, Head of Investor Relations.

[Byron Jeffers, Head of Investor Relations at First Solar]

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on today's earnings call. Joining me are our Chief Executive Officer, Mark Widmar, and our Chief Financial Officer, Alex Bradley. During this call, we will review our 2025 results and discuss our outlook for 2026. After our prepared remarks, we'll open the line for questions. Before we begin, please note that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially due to risks and uncertainties. We undertake no obligation to update these statements due to new information or future events. For a discussion of factors that could cause these results to differ materially, please refer to today's press release, our SEC filings, and the earnings materials available at investor.firstsolar.com. On this call, we will also reference certain non-GAAP financial information.

[Byron Jeffers, Head of Investor Relations at First Solar]

This non-GAAP financial information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with US GAAP. A reconciliation of our non-GAAP items to their respective nearest US GAAP measure can be found in our earnings press release and our earnings presentation. With that, I'll turn it over to Mark.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today. Beginning on slide four, I will share key highlights and accomplishments from 2025. We entered the year under the new U.S. administration with a back-weighted shipping profile that required sustained production to fulfill contracted commitments concentrated in the second half, amid a persistently uncertain policy and trade environment. Over the course of the year, we navigated a budgetary reconciliation process, which created the Build Back Better Act, evolving tariff scenarios, customer negotiations, and regulatory developments, including Section 232 actions, FEOC restrictions, and AD/CVD investigations that are still unresolved and could ultimately prove to be either headwinds or tailwinds. Throughout, we remained anchored to a core guiding principle and a key differentiator valued by our customers: contract certainty, both in pricing and in timely delivery.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

To honor our obligations, we maintain sufficient capacity to fulfill international module commitments and actively pursue various contractual productions to address shifting tariff dynamics and, in some cases, contract terminations. Given that backdrop, we took a disciplined, selected approach to customer contracting throughout the year. That approach is proving effective. Since our last earnings call, we secured gross bookings of 2.3 GW, excluding domestic India volume and 0.1 GW of low-bin inventory clearance. We booked 1 gigawatt in our key U.S. utility scale market at an ASP of $0.364 per watt, inclusive of applicable adjusters. By remaining patient, selective, and opportunistic, we capitalized on demand that recognizes the differentiated value of our product and contracting structure, strengthening the forward earnings profile of our backlog and positioning us to navigate and potentially benefit from ongoing policy and trade uncertainty.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

We are pleased to have delivered record sales of 17.5 GW of modules in 2025. Net sales of $5.2 billion were at the top end of our most recent guidance range and represented a 24% year-over-year increase. full-year diluted EPS was within our most recent guidance range at $14.21 per share. We ended the year with $2.9 billion of gross cash and $2.4 billion of net cash, coming in above our guidance range. Our growth continued in 2025 as we advanced our U.S. capacity expansion, highlighted by initiating commercial production in Louisiana, our fifth U.S. factory. In addition, we announced plans to onshore the finishing of Series 6 modules initiated at our international factories by adding U.S. finishing capacity with a new facility in South Carolina.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

We expect production from this facility to begin in Q4 of 2026 and run through the first half of 2027. We also advanced our CdTe-based CuRe semiconductor platform. Following a limited commercial production run from Q4 2024 to Q1 2025, we delivered initial CuRe modules to customers in the first half of 2025. Based on laboratory and field testing results, CuRe has demonstrated the expected advantaged energy profile, driven by industry-leading temperature coefficient and long-term degradation rate with improved bifaciality. These results continue to support a disciplined factory-by-factory CuRe conversion rollout, expected to begin next month, starting at our Ohio Series 6 factory.... In parallel with our CdTe-based CuRe platform, we advanced our next generation perovskite thin film program. Our focus remains on efficiency, energy attributes, reliability, and a scalable path to high volume, low cost manufacturing of this potentially transformational thin film.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

We launched the perovskite development line at our Perrysburg campus and reached full in-line processing capabilities in Q3, marking an important step in the lab to fab transferability and enabling production of smaller form factor modules using anticipated manufacturing tools and integrated processes. In late 2025, we initiated sourcing for a perovskite Series 6 module form factor pilot line, which we expect to reach operational readiness in early 2027. While we made promising progress in 2025, additional work remains before more broadly scaling our perovskite program. Lastly, we continue to actively enforce our intellectual property rights, including our TOPCon patents in the U.S. Notably, in Q4, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied three separate petitions filed by foreign headquartered manufacturers that sought to invalidate aspects of our TOPCon portfolio. This outcome reinforces our confidence in the strength of our patent portfolio.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

I will now turn the call over to Alex to discuss our most recent shipments and booking activities, as well as our Q4 and full-year 2025 results.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

Thanks, Mark. Beginning on slide five, as of December 31, 2024, contracted backlog totaled 68.5 GW, valued at $20.5 billion or approximately $0.299 per watt. For the full-year 2025, we sold 17.5 GW of modules, secured 7.4 GW of gross bookings, and recorded 8.3 GW of debookings, primarily due to our termination of contract as a result of contract breaches by customers, resulting in net full-year debookings of 0.9 GW. We ended the year with a contracted backlog of 50.1 GW, valued at $15 billion. As a reminder, the contracted backlog reflects the base ASP. A significant portion of our existing contracted backlog includes pricing adjusters that may increase the base ASP, contingent on achieving specific milestones within our technology roadmap and manufacturing replication plan.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

At year-end, approximately 23.2 GW of contracted volume included these adjusters, which we estimate could generate up to an additional $0.6 billion, or approximately $0.03 per watt, the majority of which we recognized in 2027, 2028. Turning to the P&L on slide six, Q4 net sales were $1.7 billion, a $0.1 billion increase sequentially. Full-year net sales were $5.2 billion, a $1 billion increase year-over-year, driven primarily by a 24% increase in module volume. Gross margin in Q4 was 40%, an increase from 38% in the prior quarter. The increase was driven by a higher mix of U.S.-manufactured modules benefiting from Section 45X tax credits, lower non-standard freight charges due to reduced international shipments, and the resolution of the glass supply chain disruption experienced in Q3 at our Alabama facility.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

These benefits are partially offset by ramp and underutilization costs to Louisiana, a higher proportion of sales into the India market, and the termination amounts recognized in the third quarter related to the breach of contracts by affiliates of BP. full-year 2025 gross margin was 41%, a decrease from 44% in the prior year. The decline was primarily driven by tariff costs, as well as the impact of tariffs exacerbating warehousing expense associated with a back-weighted revenue profile, detention and demurrage, partially driven by supply-demand imbalances following certain contract terminations due to customer default, and underutilization from the curtailment of our Series 6 international facilities. These headwinds were partially offset by $1.6 billion of Section 45X tax credits recognized in 2025, relative to $1 billion in 2024, driven by a higher mix of US-manufactured module volume sold.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

As an update on warranty-related matters, we've resolved certain claims and have continued to advance negotiations with additional customers regarding warranty claims for select Series 7 modules produced prior to 2025. Based on our settlement experience, the estimated number of affected modules, and projected remediation costs, we believe a reasonable estimate of potential future losses will range from approximately $35 million to $75 million. Within this range, we've recorded a specific warranty liability of $50 million, representing our best estimate of the expected impacts associated with this issue. We're aware of certain statements, including in recent counterclaim filings by affiliates of BP, relating to overall PV plant underperformance. While we will not comment on existing litigation, we do encourage a review of our initial complaint filed last year, as well as our answer to those claims and our motion to dismiss, filed earlier this month.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

To relate to overall PV project output, we would note that solar plant performance relative to expectation is influenced by a broad set of environmental, design, operational, and grid-related factors. These include, but are not limited to, third-party prediction modeling, weather variability, terrain variability, local microclimates, shading and soiling, procurement and design decisions relating to trackers, inverters, transformers, and other plant components, design and construction parameters, including EPC quality, DC and AC system design, construction, and handling, and operational factors, including tracker, algorithm, design, and fidelity, open circuit conditions, and overall O&M scope and quality. In short, a solar plant's performance reflects its total environment system design. As we've consistently stated, First Solar fully stands behind its module warranty obligations. To the extent a customer has a valid module warranty claim, we remain ready, willing, and able to perform our responsibilities pursuant to the procedures agreed to in our warranty.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

SG&A, R&D, and production startup expense totaled $117 million in Q4, a decrease of approximately $27 million relative to the prior quarter. The decrease was primarily driven by the reduction of startup costs associated with the Louisiana facility commencing commercial operations. For the full-year 2025, operating expenses were $523 million, an increase of $59 million year-over-year. This includes a $42 million increase in R&D expense, driven by higher depreciation, maintenance, and utility costs associated with our research facilities, as well as increased headcount and compensation. SG&A increased by $15 million, driven primarily by higher allowance for credit losses on age receivable balances and supplier loans.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

Our fourth quarter operating income was $548 million, which included depreciation, amortization, and accretion of $141 million, ramp and underutilization costs of $29 million, excluding depreciation, production startup expense of $1 million, and share-based compensation expense of $3 million. For full-year 2025, our operating income was $1.6 billion, which included depreciation, amortization, and accretion of $529 million, ramp and underutilization costs of $140 million, production startup expense of $86 million, and share-based compensation expense of $19 million. Interest income, interest expense, other income, and foreign currency losses totaled $3 million in income in Q4 and $16 million in expense for the full-year.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

Income tax expense for the fourth quarter was $30 million, compared to a tax expense of $4 million in the third quarter. This quarter-over-quarter increase in tax expense was primarily a function of Q3 benefits, including a $20 million discrete tax benefit associated with the acceptance of a filing position on amended tax returns in a foreign jurisdiction, incremental share-based compensation benefits recorded in the prior quarter. Recorded full-year income tax expense of $53 million. Q4's earnings per diluted share were $4.84, compared to $4.24 in the previous quarter. For the full-year 2025, earnings per diluted share were $14.21, compared to $12.02 in 2024, and within our guidance range. Turning to Slide seven, I'll cover select balance sheet items and summary cash flow information.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

The aggregate balance of our cash equivalents, restricted cash, restricted cash equivalents, and marketable securities was $2.9 billion at year-end, an increase of $0.8 billion sequentially and $1.1 billion year-over-year. Both the sequential and full-year increases in gross cash were driven primarily by proceeds from the sale of Section 45X tax credits generated during the year and positive operating cash flows, partially offset by capital expenditures for our Louisiana facility. We monetized $0.8 billion of 2025 Section 45X tax credits in the fourth quarter, and $1.4 billion during the full-year. Notably, in January 2026, we also received $118 million for 2024 Section 45X tax credits, where we elected a direct pay option in our 2024 tax return, filed in October 2025.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

The sale transactions highlight the liquidity of the Section 45X tax credit sale market, and the IRS refund provides insight into direct pay election turnaround times, providing additional visibility and flexibility to optimize credit monetization and manage overall liquidity. Accounts receivable and inventory decreased both sequentially and relative to the prior year, reflecting improved customer collections and higher volume sold. Capital expenditures were $172 million in the fourth quarter, compared to $204 million in the third quarter. full-year 2025 CapEx was $870 million, compared to $1.5 billion in 2024. Our year-end net cash position was $2.4 billion, an increase of $0.9 billion from the prior quarter, and an increase of $1.2 billion from the prior year.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

Now I'll turn the call back to Mark, who will provide an update on market conditions, policy, and technology.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

All right, thank you. Turning to Slide eight. In 2025, the policy and trade environment remained complex. While we are experiencing significant direct and indirect tariff impacts, in our view, on balance, the environment is net favorable for First Solar, an example of genuine, long-standing U.S.-based solar manufacturing. In contrast, in our view, headwinds beyond reciprocal tariffs and commodity cost increases continue to build for the crystalline silicon industry. A combination of tighter trade enforcement, potential retroactive tariffs, pending Section 232 actions, expanding foreign entities of concerns or FEOC restrictions, and greater intellectual property enforcement is increasing cost, timing, and compliance risks for developers relying on crystalline silicon products with ties to China.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

With respect to trade, it is notable that the Trump administration has withdrawn its appeal against a U.S. Court of International Trade ruling in the Auxin litigation, requiring that the retroactive collection of previous suspended AD/CVD tariffs. If this ruling is maintained, which appears increasingly likely, amounting contingent liabilities for AD/CVD duties associated with this unlawful two-year moratorium could represent an as of yet unrealized material financial impact on those foreign producers that relied on it. In fact, one recent industry publication noted that, quote, "U.S. Customs is suggesting that no panels that came in during the moratorium qualified for the moratorium." In support of true domestic manufacturing, we are encouraged by interim Department of the Treasury guidance issued earlier this month.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

that in our view, clearly signal the administration's intent to address gamesmanship by Chinese-tied solar manufacturers seeking to evade U.S. regulations and benefit from tax incentives by artificially shuffling ownership stakes, voting rights, or IP licensing with the intent of evading FEOC status. We anticipate that the forthcoming FEOC restrictions will be aligned with the legislative intent of prohibiting access to tax credits for entities with sudden corporate restructuring, lacking business purpose. We also commend Commerce preliminary CVD determinations issued earlier today as part of the broader Solar IV AD/CVD investigation into Laos, India, and Indonesia, which reflect subsidy rates of approximately 81%, 126%, and 104% respectively. Note. These preliminary CVD rates do not include preliminary anti-dumping rates, which will be additive and are expected to be determined in April.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

It is expected that final aggregate AD/CVD rates will be determined by the end of September. We expect that the final AD/CVD duties applied in Solar IV will again support a level playing field against the illegal and unfair trade practices of Chinese-headquartered and other crystalline silicon manufacturers who strategically evade U.S. trade laws. Finally, IP enforcement must be considered within the overall legal framework that includes these recent legislative and regulatory headwinds confronting the crystalline silicon industry. Earlier today, we filed a petition with the United States International Trade Commission, or ITC, against 10 groups of foreign-headquartered manufacturers that we believe are producing products infringing on one of our U.S. TOPCon patents. This is a separate action from our three actions seeking monetary damages against affiliates of Adani, Canadian Solar, and JinkoSolar in the United States District Court.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

If the ITC institutes an investigation based on our complaint, we expect that the matter would be decided in approximately 18 months. If our case is successful, the ITC may issue a general exclusion order preventing the importation of infringing TOPCon products made by foreign entities, or in an alternative, may issue a limited exclusion order preventing the importation of infringing TOPCon products by the entities named in our complaint. The ITC may issue a cease and desist order, preventing the sale of infringing TOPCon products currently in the United States. Note, the IP-related headwinds confronting the crystalline silicon industry is reflected not just by First Solar's recent victories and continued enforcement efforts, but also by the recently reported $236 million settlement entered in between Maxeon and Aiko just days before a U.S. patent court was due to decide their patent dispute.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

In summary, the policy and trade environment, together with sustained intellectual property enforcement across the industry, have continued to generate mounting uncertainties for U.S. developers that are dependent on suppliers tethered to China-tied supply and/or IP. On the top of the technology, turning to slide nine, our strategy remains anchored in a simple premise. Customers ultimately buy lifetime energy, not just nameplate efficiency, and our roadmap is designed to optimize the balance of efficiency, energy yield, and costs while leveraging our industry-leading thin-film expertise. We continue to believe the next step change in solar will be enabled by thin-film platforms such as perovskites. We are well aware that many in the industry are seeking to crack the code of this potential next generation of advanced thin-film technology.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

We believe the winner of the perovskite race will also need to have the ability to manufacture the product cost-competitively in a high-volume manufacturing environment. As the world's leader in thin-film PV technology and the world's only manufacturer of thin films at scale, we believe we are uniquely positioned to advance this prospective device, given our nearly three decades of not only thin-film R&D learnings, but high-volume thin-film manufacturing experience. Our technology strategy continues to be primarily concentrated on two core thin-film-focused pillars. Firstly, we are executing a disciplined phase gate introduction of CuRe, responsibly bringing this new technology to market with proven laboratory results and expanding field validation.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

Consistent with our prior outlook, we expect to permanently convert the Ohio lead line to CuRe in Q1, providing a pathway to enhance the energy attributes and competitiveness of our Series 6 platform, and then rolling out these enhancements to our Series 7 platform at successive factories. Executing CuRe remains strategically important because it is designed to enhance the attributes that translate into lifetime energy, including improved temperature response and degradation behavior, which are highly valued by utility-scale customers. When adding the improved energy attributes of CuRe to the current energy advantages of thin-film CdTe, such as superior spectral and shading response. CuRe can deliver up to 8% more lifetime specific energy yield than crystalline silicon TOPCon technology in the markets we serve.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

Our second pillar, perovskite, is a key part of our effort to develop next generation thin-film semiconductors that can be deployed at commercial scale in both our traditional utility scale markets, while potentially expanding our addressable market segments. To date, we have achieved reliability results we believe are comparable with best-in-class R&D efforts, while continuing to advance efficiency and stability, two of the industry's key hurdles to scaling perovskite technology. A major enabler of these efforts is our dedicated perovskite development line in Ohio. As announced prior to the beginning of the call, we have entered into an agreement with Oxford PV, the holder of what we believe is the most fundamental portfolio of perovskite-related patents. Under the terms of this agreement, Oxford PV will license to us, on a non-exclusive basis, its existing issued and currently pending patent applications.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

We believe that this agreement will advance our freedom to develop, manufacture, and sell crystalline silicon-free, perovskite-based semiconductor modules in the U.S. utility, commercial, and residential markets. I will now turn the call back over to Alex, who will discuss our 2026 outlook and guidance.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

Thanks, Mark. Before turning to our financial guidance, I want to briefly reiterate our approach to managing the business amid a dynamic market, policy, and trade environment. We enter 2026 with a backlog of 50.1 GW, despite taking a highly selective approach to bookings over the past two years. We expect to continue this strategy in 2026 as we await the outcome of, and impact on forward module demand and pricing from, the numerous political, regulatory, and legal matters discussed earlier in the call. We believe our market position with non-FEOC and high U.S. content supply, and our proprietary thin-film platform remains long-term advantage. Our existing contracted backlog relative to our production capacity, provides us with the ability and flexibility to be patient. Regarding 2026 U.S. deliveries, many of our customers continue to face both regulatory and commercial challenges, including federal permitting approval delays.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

As we previously stated, we will continue to work with customers to accommodate schedule shifts, where possible, consistent with our philosophy of supporting our long-term partnerships, even where we are not contractually required to do so. We enter 2026 with a fully allocated position for our U.S. production. Given tariff uncertainty, our India productions are assumed to be sold into the India domestic market. We'll continue to monitor opportunities to export products into the U.S., where it is margin accretive to do so. Our guidance assumes our India facility operating at full capacity, with the ability to flex production as needed through the year in response to changes in demand signals. Demand for our Series 6 international products produced in Malaysia and Vietnam remains constrained.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

Our decision in Q4 of 2025 to establish a new finishing line in the U.S., allows us to make use of a portion of the front end of these Southeast Asian facilities, optimizing freight, tariffs, and domestic content for the sale of incremental products into the U.S. domestic market. We intend to run our remaining end-to-end capacity in Malaysia and Vietnam at low utilization rates this year, despite the financial impact of doing so, maintaining a near-term option to increase throughput should catalysts, such as the political and regulatory matters discussed earlier, drive incremental profitable demand. Slide 10 shows our capacity and forecast production for 2026 and into 2027. Nameplate capacity reflects current output entitlement at full scale, throughput, and yield, with downtime solely for planned maintenance.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

Production reflects nameplate capacity adjusted for factory ramp, other downtime, including for technology and tool upgrades, and any planned reduction in throughput, including due to market demand. Related to technology, as previously noted, we expect to recommence running Series 6 CuRe products in Perrysburg this quarter. Assumed in our 2026 production forecast for India, is downtime associated with tool upgrades, with the intent of beginning CuRe production on our first Series 7 line in India in early 2027, followed by the remainder of the Series 7 fleet thereafter. Additionally, our Southeast Asian capacity is reduced significantly in both 2026 and 2027, due to the removal of tools destined for our U.S. finishing line, as well as for reuse in our perovskite development work.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

By 2027, U.S. finishing capacity is forecast to be 3.5 GW, with a remaining Southeast Asia capacity of 1.8 GW for fully finished International Series 6 modules. With projected U.S. nameplate capacity of 14.9 GW in 2026, growing to 17.1 GW in 2027, with the scaling of Louisiana and South Carolina, we expect global nameplate capacity of 19 GW in 2026 and 22.1 GW in 2027. Note, we expect U.S. nameplate to continue to increase as we drive technology throughput and yield improvements. In terms of production, as previously noted, we expect significant underutilization of our International Series 6 facilities. India is assumed to run high throughput with the ability to flex production as needed based on local demand and international sale options.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

With forecasted U.S. production of 13-13.3 GW this year, and 14.9-16.1 GW next year, this results in total forecasted production of 16.5-17.5 GW in 2026, and 18.9-20.5 GW in 2027. Turn to slide 11. Other assumptions embedded within our guidance today. Expected volume sold of 17-18.2 GW is above forecast production as we reduce inventory levels by year-end. We forecast an ASP of approximately $0.308 per watt for volume sold in the U.S., slightly above our contracted backlog. This includes certain freight, tariff, and commodity recovery and technology upside.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

We expect limited ASP upside from CuRe sales in 2026, largely as a function of contractual notification deadlines relative to the timing of the decision to recommend secure production. Combined with India domestic sales, the majority of which we expect will book and deliver within the next year, we forecast a global ASP recognized of approximately $0.287 per watt. Cost per watt sold is forecast to remain relatively flat year-over-year at approximately $0.267 per watt, which includes the impact of tariffs and the impact of reshoring U.S. manufacturing, largely recognized through ramp and underutilization expense, and excludes the benefit of Section 45X credits generated by domestic manufacturing. Including the benefit of Section 45X credits, cost for what sold is projected to be down approximately $0.03 per watt year-over-year.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

Cost per watt released from inventory is expected to increase approximately $0.02 per watt year-over-year. Approximately half of this increase is forecast to come from a mix shift, as both Southeast Asia production reduces and Louisiana, Alabama increases. The other half to come as a result of multiple factors, including increases in tariff costs, increases in core bill of material costs, increases in utility rates, and downtime for technology upgrades. Period costs are expected to decrease by an equivalent approximately $0.02 per watt from a combination of lower standard sales rate due to greater domestic mix shift, the effective elimination of non-standard freight charges as a function of reduced international product imports, reduced warehousing costs, and other period cost reductions.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

To provide some more color, we forecast total net tariff cost impact across bill of material and finished goods imports, recognized in both Cost per watt produced and period costs toward cost what sold of $155 million-$175 million. Net of expected contractual recoveries on finished goods sold, we expect a total tariff impact of $125 million-$135 million. This assumes a Section 122 tariff in place for 150 days at 15%, impacting all bill of materials, works in progress, and finished goods imports in that time period. In addition, certain commodities, including aluminum, are subject to long-lasting, higher rate Section 232 tariffs. Note that we recognize the P&L impact of tariffs at the time of product sale.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

Our total tariff impact in 2026 reflects higher tariff rates paid on bill of materials, works in progress, and finished goods imports incurred prior to the recent Supreme Court decision. Tariffs also indirectly lead to underlying commodity cost pressure for our variable U.S. bill of material, including relating to aluminum, steel, glass, interlayer targets, and spares. Electricity rate hikes increase fixed costs. These cost increases are not contractually recoverable from our customers. Sales rates forecast to be approximately $0.014 per watt in 2026. Warehousing-related cost of approximately $200 million is down from 2025, but remains high, and part of the function of underutilization of space, driven by our forecast Southeast Asian curtailment. Beginning in 2027, we expect to reduce warehouse costs to a longer-term run rate of approximately $100 million per year.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

Forecast ramp and underutilization expenses of $115-155 million are a function of curtailing Malaysian, Vietnam capacity, as well as the ramp of our U.S. finishing line. Setup costs is expected to be $110-120 million, driven primarily by the ongoing depreciation and logistics associated with idled finishing equipment in transit, as well as certain tariff-related costs incurred to import that equipment and warehousing such equipment for use at our new South Carolina facility. Finally, a note on capital structure. Our strong balance sheet remains a strategic differentiator. It allows us to navigate periods of volatility, including near-term supply and demand imbalances in certain international markets, while continuing to support R&D investment, technology capital spend, and capacity growth, including localizing the U.S. solar supply chain in support of energy security and national policy objectives.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

We ended 2025 in a strong liquidity position and have since enhanced our financial flexibility by entering into a new $1.5 billion senior unsecured revolving credit facility, improved commercial terms, greater flexibility, more relaxed covenants. In 2026, we intend to fund CapEx through cash on hand and operating cash flow. We plan to prepay the remaining balances outstanding under our India credit facilities, including our loan with the DFC, ahead of its scheduled maturity. Doing so enables us to optimize our jurisdictional capital structure, increase the capacity of our local working capital facilities, while reducing exposure to India rupee volatility-related hedging costs. Separately, while not assumed in our guidance, potential monetization of 2026 Section 45X tax credits provides additional liquidity optionality. Our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

Firstly, we prioritize maintaining a resilient working capital reserve, approximately $1.5-2 billion, to account for industry cyclicality and uncertainty and short-term supply and demand imbalances. Secondly, we deploy cash to fund growth and replicate technology improvements across the fleet. Thirdly, we invest in innovation through R&D and targeted capital investments, as well as strategic enablers such as licensing arrangements, to advance our technology roadmap, including perovskite optionality. Fourthly, we'll consider M&A, which we're actively evaluating, to pursue complementary technology-adjacent opportunities to reinforce our strategic differentiation. As we near the conclusion of recent years of sustained high CapEx associated with manufacturing capacity growth. We will evaluate applying cash generation in excess of the above capital priorities to share repurchases.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

We'll provide an update on this later in the year, pending clarity around certain factors, including policy catalysts, realization of new bookings volume, and any decisions around 2026 Section 45X tax credit monetization. I'll now cover the full-year 2026 guidance ranges on slide 12. Our net sales guidance is between $4.9-5.2 billion. Gross margin is expected to be between $2.5-2.6 billion, or approximately 49.5%, which includes $2.1-2.19 billion of Section 45X tax credits and $115-155 million of ramp and underutilization costs. SG&A expense is expected to be between $215-225 million, and R&D expense between $285-290 million.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

The primary driver for our increase is due to higher investment in advanced research, including expanded perovskite and innovation center activity and planned headcount additions. SG&A and R&D expense combined is expected to total $500-515 million, and total operating expenses, which includes $110-120 million of production startup expense, expected to be between $610 million and $635 million. Included within our R&D expense guide for 2026 are approximately $100 million of costs associated with perovskite development. Going forward, we intend to guide on an adjusted EBITDA basis, which we believe provides the clarity to our underlying operating performance and enhances comparability across periods. We forecast full-year adjusted EBITDA of $2.6-2.8 billion.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

My 1st quarter earnings cadence perspective, we expect module sales of 3.4-4 GW, Section 45X tax credits of $330-400 million, resulting in adjusted EBITDA between $400 million and $500 million. Capital expenditures in 2026 forecast to range from $0.8-1 billion. Approximately half of the spend was for capacity expansion, primarily the South Carolina finishing line and the Louisiana plant. Remaining spend is expected to be split evenly between CuRe in India and R&D technology replication and maintenance. Expect to end 2026 with gross and net cash balances between $1.7 billion and $2.3 billion, and assume a full repayment of our India credit facility with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation by June 30th, 2026.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

With that, we conclude our prepared remarks and open the call for questions. Operator?

[Operator]

We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star one again. Please pick up your handset when asking a question. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Brian Lee with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

[Brian Lee, VP at Goldman Sachs and Co.]

Hey, guys. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess just on the ASP front, Mark, you mentioned the $0.364 per watt, including adders for the U.S. bookings this quarter. How much did the adders add there? Is that sort of the level of entitlement, 36 and above, that you would expect for U.S. bookings through the rest of the year? Maybe can you comment on visibility you have on the pricing environment from this point forward? Just secondarily, on the gross margins, I'd be curious. I mean, this is implying kind of a 10% component gross margin in the guidance, even if I, you know, factor out underutilization and the 45X credit.

[Brian Lee, VP at Goldman Sachs and Co.]

I know there's a lot of moving pieces, Alex, but when do you guys kind of get back to, you know, high teens, 20% type of gross margin for components the way you were at in 2024? Kind of what are some of the big bridges to get back there? Thank you.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

All right, I'll do the ASP conversation. Alex, obviously, take the gross margin. There's about two and a half cents to $0.03 of the value of the adder in terms of the ASP, that $0.364. That's about the number. The CuRe attributes will give you close to 3%. Not everything that was booked in that $0.364 actually had the adder. If you sort of broke it out a little bit, you potentially are going to see slightly higher prices for the CuRe attributes for the product that we booked with the CuRe attributes.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

You know, look, I think the entitlement-wise, I mean, I feel good about the pricing that we're at now, but I think there's some more catalysts that could still happen. I think some are leaning in with all the uncertainty that we referenced on the call in terms of what happens with 232 and what window are they trying to book into, given the constraints with FEOC. I think if we continue to see more momentum there, we just obviously saw the Solar IV announcements, which obviously are going to address, you know, imports coming in from those three countries that we referenced. There's potentially more tailwinds, depending on how they play out, that could support even better pricing as we move forward.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

I think, visibility-wise, I think that's kind of a good indication of where we expect the market pricing to be relative to the CuRe technology.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

Brian, on the gross margin, if you back out the 45X, it's about a 7% gross margin. If you think about that against the $5 billion revenue profile, it's about $350 million of gross margin. If you try and walk that back up to, call it, the 20% number we've talked about before, this year, we've got about $165 million of tariffs sitting in there, and about $135 million on utilization. About $300 million or so there, about six points of margin.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

... you've got about $200 million of warehousing. I think we said in the prepared remarks, that'll come down to about $100 million on a run rate basis next year. Pick up another $100 million there, another 2 points of margin. If you look at the adjusters, we talked about, you know, $600 million in the backlog, mostly recognized in 2027, 2028. You take $300 million across each of those years, that's another 6 points of margin. That kind of walks you back up to, you know, around about the $1 billion of gross margin and the 20% number. Tariff is obviously still in that's, that's an impact that we're still wrestling with.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

but I'd also say you've got incremental volume coming in next year, which is not factored into that, and the contribution margin benefit of that, even ex-IRA, is gonna be meaningful. I'd also say we're trying to look at this on an ex-IRA basis, but it's challenging to do that to some degree because we are adding incremental costs, both by U.S. manufacturing and also by the mix shift to bringing more production into the U.S. We're doing that, and that allows us, enables us to capture that 45X credit. I know we're looking on a ex-IRA basis, but if you think about it with the IRA included, with that 45X, yes, the core shows 7% this year and the walk up that we talked about just now. You've got 43 points of IRA.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

The growth margin on a GAAP basis will be 50% this year relative to 41% last year, which is the highest we've seen. Obviously, we want to keep growing the core underlying non-IRA, and there's a path there, as I said, that takes you back up to that 20%, and we're about $1 billion at that $5 billion revenue profile. You can't ignore the two and the interconnectedness of the fact that we are reshoring capacity, and that does come at a cost, both direct cost and mix shift cost, that enable us to capture those 45X benefits.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

Yeah, Brian, I want to add a couple of things to. One, back to on the pricing environment, because I also want to make sure this is clear, is that that product or that ASP is also reflective of largely influenced by a domestic content product, right? Now, what we do a lot of times is it's agreed to around some number of points which allow us to bring in some amount of international volume, assuming the tariff rates are amenable, such that we can blend international. If we ended up doing a straight up international deal, for example, with some of the capacity we have available with our Malaysia, Vietnam facilities, I would expect that price point to be closer to $0.30. I just want to make sure that that's clear.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

If we actually end up, you know, booking some of that international volume as we go forward, that you may see a lower ASP there because of that dynamic. I want to make sure that's clear. The other one, just to Alex's point around tariff. The other thing is kind of creating some headwind for us this year is, and we've mentioned this before, I mean, there is insufficient glass supply in the US, and we've been working to bring in basically brownfield and mothballed facilities and getting them up and operational. To support the scaling that we have right now, we are bringing in some glass internationally and using it in our US production, and that is creating a cost headwind. My inbound freight costs are higher.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

I'm bearing the cost of the tariffs, and what we would expect to do as we scale up our supply chain here in the US, which we're in the midst of doing, we'll see less of a dependency on that import of that glass, which will also help us a little bit on our gross margin profile.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Julien Dumoulin-Smith with Jefferies LLC. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[Julien Dumoulin-Smith, Managing Director at Jefferies LLC]

Thank you. Thank you all very much. Appreciate the opportunity to connect here. Appreciate it. Look, if I can ask you first off, just to reconcile on the volumes produced versus sold. Can you comment a little bit about just what you're seeing here of late? Separately, can you comment a little bit about what you're actually seeing in terms of sell-through on volumes out of Asia? I know you prepared comments had some nuance on this, but just elaborate a little bit about what both Southeast Asia/India are assuming here in 2026 and what you're seeing preliminarily in 2027 as well.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

Yeah. You know, if you go to the slides, we give you a walk on what we're expecting to produce versus sell. The delta between the two is about 700 MW coming out of inventory. That's the gap you're seeing between produced volume and sold volume. We gave you the U.S. number for sold. You can see it in there. It's 12.9. It's 9.33. It's in the script there. We'll come back to you. Yeah, the delta is coming out of inventory. What was your second question, Julien?

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

I think part of it, your question was on the Southeast Asia, I think is what you're.

[Julien Dumoulin-Smith, Managing Director at Jefferies LLC]

Yeah, on sell-through.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

Yeah, let's talk through that. India is gonna produce called 3 GW or so this year and will be sold into the India market. We're actually gonna have a, you know, a really strong quarter. We had a really strong Q4 and we'll have a strong Q1 in India. Demand in India is strong. We got 3 GW or so, a little bit north of that because we got some inventory sell-through that will sell in 2026 in India, domestically manufactured, sold into the India market, okay? Now, on the Southeast Asia, you know, those factories are kind of running 20% or so. I mean, they're extremely underutilized. You know, what Alex said in his prepared remarks is that we're looking at this almost as option value.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

Some of that capacity will be fully utilized once we get our South Carolina facility up, because the front-end capacity for, call it, half of the Southeast Asia manufacturing will come to the U.S. That'll solve a piece of that underutilization. The other half is, you know.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

is going to continue to be underutilized at a very low utilization rate. What we're looking at this is really an option to allow some of these potential tailwinds around Section 232 and other things to play itself out, to see what the impact of that could be, to create more demand for those international operations. We also, I think as we indicated in our last call, we are trying to work with a couple of counterparties on potentially meaningful volume offtake for those international production. You know, that's all still in the works. It's still gonna be largely tethered back to what happens in the policy environment.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

You know, we are incurring significant underutilization and cost headwinds because of what we're trying to do right now is figure out, let's create an option, let's evaluate what we continue to see in the market. We've been sort of wearing this for over a year now. You know, it was about a year ago when these tariffs came in place, and, you know, we started to throttle down, you know, kinda towards the end of Q2, beginning of Q3, and we've kind of run at a very low utilization rate to try to sort of buy some time to see how these tariffs ultimately get played out.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Mark Strouse with JP Morgan. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[Mark Strouse, Executive Director at JP Morgan]

Yes, good afternoon. Thanks for taking our questions. Within the last couple of months, there was a individual with a vast amount of resources that is talking about ramping up, supply of U.S.-based solar panel, production over the coming years. Just curious, you know, if that is having any real impact on the conversations you're having with your customers, especially if you look out, to later this decade. I have a quick follow-up. Thanks.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

Look, obviously very much aware of the announcement and the ambitions. You know, from my understanding, a lot of that is not necessarily focused for, you know, kind of our utility scale market that we're primarily focused on. I think it's primarily looked to be captive for their own consumption, for their own programs that they're envisioning. You know, it's also out in our horizon, and I think there's also a pretty strong realization of some pretty significant challenges to try to get to that type of scale.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

If you're really thinking about this as fully vertically integrated all the way from polysilicon forward, you're not only you're trying to solve the constraint at, let's say, the cell level, you've got to think through how do you sell the wafer and how do you think through the polysilicon. The capital investment to try to move all that forward is going to be pretty overwhelming. The technical aspects around it as well, of understanding freedom to operate issues. We've already talked about there are IP infringements all over the place, within the crystalline silicon world, and everybody's going to stand up and try to protect their IP where it makes sense. It hasn't really impacted our conversations yet.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

I think if they got to a realization where you started to see, you know, sites being announced, actual equipment being purchased, you know, operations being commenced, then I think you know, maybe it starts to sort of inform our customers' views of other thoughts and ideas, but as of right now, it's having very little impact.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

Mark, just wanted to comment around that. As you're well aware, the biggest constraint that we're seeing in the market for hyperscalers right now is access to power. As we've just gone through the process of looking to site our new finishing line, the biggest constraint we faced around that was land with available power to connect. Again, Mark mentioned you've got a capital constraint, which even that could be overcome, IP constraints, just knowledge and know-how. You've also got the constraint of how you would power these facilities. If you're trying to build to that scale, you'd be in the same constraints that the hyperscalers have today.

[Mark Strouse, Executive Director at JP Morgan]

Okay, thank you for that. That makes sense. Then I just wanted to ask a clarifying follow-up to Brian Lee's question earlier. Mark, when you said the $0.364 is for the domestic content, are you saying that that is the blended rate, so it would be a higher amount than that for the U.S. domestic content, average with the whatever, $0.30 for international, or is that $0.364 how we should be thinking about the domestic content portion?

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

The way we, I tried to mention this a little bit last time, the way we actually price is we, you know, we negotiate with the customer some number of points that they need. Given their procurement strategy around, you know, the tracker in particular, and then what are the incremental points that they need relative to the window that they plan on putting the project into service? We will negotiate a points construct, which then gives us the optionality to blend whatever percentage we can internationally. And we're in a pretty good, you know, balance between, you know, the domestic S7 and the domestic, excuse me, international S7. You know, we can optimize there pretty well, assuming we choose not to sell into the India market.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

Where we're a little bit more off, misaligned is really with the only having, call it 3 GW of capacity for Series 6 in the U.S., and then trying to match that up with 7 GW of international production, which makes it harder because you can't really blend that much international to achieve, let's say, a 30 or 40 or 50-point requirement that a customer has. Moving some of that finishing capacity in the U.S. also brings in some domestic content, so that helps move that equation a little bit. What I was trying to say that if you have no domestic content at all embedded into a blended price construct. You're gonna see a much lower.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

If I go out and say, "Okay, I want a customer to buy 500 MW of an international only with no domestic content value," and you may see some of that in some customers that are doing a PTC project, as an example, because the uplift on, you know, the PTC is, you know, not as meaningful as it is on the ITC. You know, those prices are gonna be lower. I just sort of want to make sure that that's clear and that's understood, that, you know, you could see a delta, you know, I, you know, I said $0.30 or somewhere in that range. If you're selling just a pure international S6 product into the U.S. market, you would see a lower ASP clearing price.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Philip Shen with Roth Capital Partners. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[Philip Shen, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. First one, just was wondering if you could give us a little more color on why no EPS guide for 2026? Secondly, in terms of the ASP implied for the 2026 guide, you know, it seems like the U.S. ASP, it might be a little bit low. I think in 2025, it was closer to $0.324, but the implied U.S. ASP in the 2026 guide seems to be closer to $0.308. I was wondering if you might be able to give some color on that. Finally, on Oxford PV, can you share what kinds of efficiencies you're able to generate? What are you seeing in your test modules, if any?

[Philip Shen, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

What's your sense of timing as to when commercial volumes could actually ramp? Thanks, guys.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

On the EPS piece, we're moving the guidance to EBITDA. We think it gives a better view of operational performance, it's better comparability year-over-year. Especially a year like this year, where you've got significant costs associated with both underutilization of our Southeast Asia facilities, as we're deliberately curtailing those, as Mark mentioned, waiting for an option around whether there's profitable capacity or profitable production to be had there to serve the market. We've got significant startup costs as we're moving that equipment from Southeast Asia to the U.S. You know, historically, we haven't done that around startup and ramp production, but this is a lot different, where it's actually taking tools we already have in the ground and idling them for a significant period of time.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

I think it makes it more comparable. On the tax side also, we've got potential challenges around Pillar Two this year, which will make the tax number very noisy going down to EPS. On a kind of core non-Pillar Two basis, expect very low tax expense for the year. Because the agreement's not yet been finalized, there's a potential chance we'll have to accrue significant Pillar Two expense, which ultimately we don't believe will ever get realized on a cash basis. Until those agreements are finalized, we'd have to accrue that. We think it helps us with comparability as well. On the ASP side, I think your number is right, $0.308. That's if you look at what's in the backlog, it's around $0.30.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

It's about what's in the backlog coming out at that ASP with a little bit of uplift relative to some adjusters we get around freight, around commodities, and then there's a little bit of upside on the tech side as well there. If you think about, we mentioned on the adjusters going forward, there's about $600 million or about $0.03 a watt on average of adjusted value sitting aligned with the QA platform, and most of that, we said, will be realized 2027, 2028, which is when we'll start having much more QA product available to us. This year we have limited QO production, and given the timing of our decision to run that QO relative to the notification timings in the contracts, we're going to see very limited upside from that this year.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

That's why you're seeing that U.S. ASP around $30.8.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

I think the other thing, Phil, when you're looking at your year-on-year, you have to remember that last year, as we realized throughout the year, a handful of terminations, obviously, the largest one being the Lightsource bp termination, which, you know, that obviously impacts revenue, but, you know, you'd have to normalize, pull that out of your top-line revenue, and then do your math from that standpoint. But that clearly provided some incremental uplift to the reported ASP last year because of some of those terminations.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

As it relates to the Oxford PV, or just our perovskite program, basically what we're doing right now, Phil, we have a development line where we're doing small form factor modules, so think of them they're like 60 centimeters by 20 centimeters or so. These are actual, fully functional, small form factor modules that we're producing in an actual integrated production process, and doing all of our kind of conversion of some of the efforts we do in our advanced research, whether it's in California or whether it's in Sweden, and then we're doing all that testing within our development line.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

You know, if you, if you look at our, as we said in the prepared remarks, if you look at our efficiencies and what we're seeing, you know, in stability, we're best in class from many, many, many ways, right? Many different dimensions. I feel good about where we are from a program standpoint, but, you know, there are still fundamental challenges that have to be addressed. We are very good at understanding the nuances of thin films, right? We understand the issue of metastability, right? We understand the impact of encapsulating the thin film, right? To protect the thin film. We have a number of what have been identified as, you know, best in class in particular, Chinese perovskite product.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

If you put those out into a test field, as we have, first off, they'll even tell you in their literature that they give you, "Do not expose the module to open circuit," which means effectively, once you install it has to be immediately energized. If you choose to, you know, to expose it to open circuit, it degrades almost instantaneously in some cases. There's others that because their encapsulation is so poor, that the film just starts to, over time, effectively pull apart, right? There's a huge significant delamination that happens with the film, and it can't sustain itself over extended periods of time. There's a lot of many factors or many factors that factor into how do you commercialize a product?

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

We are working on all of those dimensions, right? Our view is we need to think about the development, not just to drive the efficiency, also drive the attributes to a point where they're competitive, and then to manufacture that in a way that creates an enduring product that can be, you know, into the field for 30+ years and perform at attributes that are relatively close to the current thin-film technologies that we have. That we can do that all in HVM and do that in a way that we can do it cost-competitively. There's many different things that we're working on in that regard, Phil. I would just say we're pleased with where we are. Our next phase is we will be investing.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

We've already started our procurement process to put together a pilot line that will make full-size modules, largely still for development purposes. We will deploy those modules in the field as well, some commercially with customers. As we evolve the development program, as we evolve the HVM issues in larger form factors... Anytime you scale from something that's, call it, you know, 20 by 6 centimeters to something that is, you know, 2.5 square meters, there's issues you're gonna have to deal with through that scaling process, and especially the uniformity of the cell. Once we are better informed around how all that's progressing, that'll determine, you know, overall commercial readiness. The entitlement here is an efficiency number that is 20+%.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

It's a, it's an LTR that is, you know, competitive, a bifaciality that's, call it, 70%, and a tempco that's, you know, somewhere in, you know, the mid-teens. You know, which is better than we have now with CdTe. That's the aspiration of what we're trying to accomplish, but a lot of work between now and then.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Vikram Bagri with Citi. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[Vikram Bagri, Director and Senior Analyst at Citi]

Good evening, everyone. I wanted to ask, you know, sort of a two-part question about India capacity and potential for cancellations. First, on India, can you talk about the pricing environment? I was wondering if you can give us confidence that the sales in the market are viable, the pricing is stable, and is expected to stay stable throughout the year. I understand there is no sizable spot market in the U.S., but is there a possibility some of that volume can be rerouted to the U.S., given the 15% tariff now in place? Finally, on India, it seems there is a lot of domestic capacity for panels being ramped up. How do you think about that capacity in the long term and the viability of that market for solar panels?

[Vikram Bagri, Director and Senior Analyst at Citi]

As a follow-up on cancellations, you've historically mentioned, you know, pricing and new players pulling back investments from renewables, and the U.S. market has created this risk of cancellations. With lower tariffs, how are the conversations going with customers? Is that risk much lower now? And if you can quantify how much of the contracts are potentially at risk of cancellations. Thank you.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

All right, I'll deal with the India question first, and I don't know if you got the tariff question. Okay, all right. Look, what I would say is right now, you know, pricing is a point to look at in India. It is, it is lower. What I would say, though, is we're effectively realizing high teens to low 20% gross margin. If you wanna look at it from a gross margin standpoint, because I think you have to understand the cost of manufacturing in India is significantly lower than what the cost of manufacturing is in the U.S. Yes, lower pricing, but you basically balance that out with a lower cost of production, and you're realizing, you know, kinda high teens to low 20% type gross margin in India.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

So, you know, that's obviously where we stand right now. As you if you look across, you know, the horizon of what do we, you know, how would we optimize that, you know, production, and one of the things I think you said is the risk of overcapacity. Look, I agree that there's that risk, but there's also what's counterbalancing that and why there's also robust demand for our product and technology in India, is that, you know, the approved list of model and manufacturers in India is now moving further upstream. It started off with the module itself. Now, effectively, for any, for any project that is commissioned in April of this year or Q2, will now have a cell requirement to be made domestically, and then there's also in.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

They foreshadowed already a wafer requirement that effectively starts to come into effect, in 2028. There's not a existing vertically integrated manufacturing capability in India at this point in time. I think what some of the manufacturers have seen is that it has become more challenging as they try to get into cells, and then even more so, they try to get into the wafer, and then obviously, they're trying to figure out the poly side of the house as well. A lot still needs to happen from that standpoint. We also believe From a cost standpoint, even if that vertically integrated supply chain were to happen, we will be cost advantage with our vertically integrated manufacturing facility, with everything being done within the four walls of a factory, right?

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

There's a cost advantage, we think. We also believe we have an energy advantage, which will be further enhanced when we implement our CuRe technology in India, which will start beginning of 2027. I look across the horizon, I feel like I got a better product, better technology. I've got a better policy environment that should continue to advantage us in terms of India. As a backdrop, to your point, we will continue to evaluate the construct of potentially bringing some of that product into the U.S. market, and we'll do some of that with a view of you know, creating some competitive tension into the domestic market. 'Cause I don't want customers to believe that I don't have an alternative path other than selling into the domestic market.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

I'd like to be able to say, sure, at the right tariff construct, you know, we can also redirect the product and blend it in with some S7 domestic product, and it still command pretty good pricing. You know, it's a little bit choppy to continue to move back and forth, 'cause today we, you know, we primarily make a fixed tilt product for the India market, and then to have to convert the factory to make a tracker product for the, for the U.S. market or export market, that's a little clunky, and you can incur some downtime and some cost, and the transportation of bringing that product into the U.S. is more expensive than we'd like.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

Ideally, if we can just harmonize and keep running that factory all out, serving the domestic market, getting good ASPs, you know, that's our preferred path, but we clearly would look at, you know, bringing some of that into the U.S. market if the situation and the dynamics are right.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

Vikram, you asked around cancellation risk and whether tariffs are playing a part there. Look, tariffs coming down, it's fairly helpful, but I don't think what you've been seeing on the cancellation side in the last year has really been tariff related. The two aren't necessarily linked. I mean, what we've said before and what we've been seeing is more of a strategic shift by certain players, especially oil and gas and the European utility players, to reallocate capital away from renewable development in the U.S. into some of their more core business on oil and gas development or European utility development. Where we've seen some of those players move away, we've seen others entering into the space in the U.S. and pick up some of that slack and see an opportunity in taking over those projects to develop them.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

It's hard to handicap a cancellation risk in the backlog. Sure, it could exist. I think historically what we've seen is then potentially more risk around the international product, just given the value of domestic content. If you look at today, the amount of international product sitting in our backlog is pretty small. You can see that by how much we're producing out of Southeast Asia this year relative to U.S. product. That product has potentially been more challenged. I think the U.S. demand has been strong, even if there were cancellations, they have much more opportunity to move any terminated U.S. products back into the U.S. market. I'd also say that, you know, clearly we've been enforcing termination penalties and fees and making sure that we capture the value in the contract.

[Alex Bradley, CFO at First Solar]

If there's a contractual obligation for someone to pay an amount for terminating those contracts, we've been enforcing that and we'll continue to do so.

[Operator]

This will be our final question. Our final question will come from the line of Ben Kallo with Baird. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[Ben Kallo, Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

Hey, guys. Thanks for putting me in here. I just wanted to square, you know, you know, time to power is a big question or big emphasis out there. I know you have so many moving pieces and just bookings. I'm trying to square, you know, time to power and the need for electrons with how you guys are doing bookings with, you know, your different moving pieces right now. Thank you.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

Look, I think, you know, Ben, you gotta, I mean, you gotta remember, we've got a luxury. We're kind of in a nice position. We've got, you know, 50 GW of contracted volume that, you know, is gonna carry us forward. There's a clear sense of urgency from customers around execution and time to power. I mean, there's customers that obviously have safe harbored under Section 48, and they need to get their projects commissioned by the end of 2028. There's others that are safe harbored under 48, and those who are continuing to safe harbor, because they can do that up to the middle of this year, to then get an opportunity to get projects done through the end of 2030. There is quite a bit of demand.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

Our customers are also dealing with a lot of angst of trying to figure out permitting issues and other things they're trying to do, financing issues, getting things, you know, in place for the current or the, you know, projects that they're executing against and the construction, what have you. Thinking through a longer position around across their portfolio, both the earlier stage and then obviously late stage development. That sense of urgency is there. People are being really creative, looking to, you know, do more on-site generation, you know, and try to get out from underneath the constraint of the interconnections.

[Mark Widmar, CEO at First Solar]

If a customer does have an interconnection agreement, I mean, they're running hard and, you know, they're making sure they're lining up their modules as well as their EPC agreement and balance of system equipment to make sure they can execute on time. It's a clear catalyst. I also think it is helping us, you know, as we engage and we talk with customers about pricing as well.

[Operator]

There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Alex Bradley, CFO
• Byron Jeffers, Head of Investor Relations
• Mark Widmar, CEO

Analysts

• Ben Kallo, Senior Research Analyst at Baird
• Brian Lee, VP at Goldman Sachs and Co.
• Julien Dumoulin-Smith, Managing Director at Jefferies LLC
• Mark Strouse, Executive Director at JP Morgan
• Philip Shen, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners
• Vikram Bagri, Director and Senior Analyst at Citi