T1 Energy is trying to become the first vertically integrated American silicon solar manufacturer, and the second quarter tests whether the Wilmer module plant can fund that ambition or merely advertise it. Net sales reached $250 million. Module output at G1 Dallas hit 935 megawatts. The plant is no longer a construction story. The debate is whether common equity captures the cell-layer step-change, or whether convert notes and a still-open Austin funding gap absorb it first.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization printed $11 million. That figure includes a $24 million International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariff refund booked as a cost-of-sales reduction. Strip the refund and the quarter is still an operating loss at the adjusted line. Gross margin expanded on higher throughput and cost-plus offtake mix. Unrestricted cash at mid-year sat at $79 million. Management later bridged with a $120 million convertible note. The print proves the factory can ship at commercial scale. It does not prove the factory can self-fund a five-hundred-ten-million cell fab.
Three events since quarter-end define the next year. T1 bought Evervolt tunnel-oxide passivated-contact patents, closed KORE Power as T1 NRI, and signed Clearway Energy Group for 641 megawatts of modules built with future G2 cells. First cell output is now slated for the opening quarter of next year after a capital-spending reset. The open question is whether a debt-heavy Austin package closes before more equity-linked paper does the job instead.