Canadian Solar storage beats guidance, modules fall 60% year over year

Canadian Solar shipped 3.7 GWh of battery energy storage in the second quarter of 2026, above its own 2.8 GWh to 3.2 GWh guidance, the company reported on August 27, 2026. Storage shipments rose 82% from the first quarter and 73% year over year, with 471 MWh of the total going to the company's own projects under execution, revenue it will recognize in later quarters. Solar module shipments recognized as revenue were 3.1 GW, up 25% sequentially and down 60% from a year earlier.

Net revenue was $1.2 billion, at the high end of guidance, and gross margin of 13.9% landed within the guided 13% to 15% while falling from 25.1% in the first quarter; the release attributes the drop primarily to the absence of IEEPA tariff refund benefits recognized in the prior quarter, alongside what CFO Xinbo Zhu called "normalized energy storage margins." Net loss attributable to shareholders was $77 million, or $1.40 per share, widening from a $32 million loss in the first quarter.

The quarter's manufacturing news is in Indiana: Phase I of the Jeffersonville HJT cell factory, 2.1 GWp that the release calls the first commercial-scale HJT solar cell facility in the US, held its ribbon-cutting in July 2026, an event the highlights section nonetheless lists as a second-quarter item. The release expects Phase II trial production to begin in the first quarter of 2027, adding 4.2 GWp and bringing the company's total solar cell nameplate capacity in the US to 6.3 GWp; CEO Colin Parkin's remarks put Phase II equipment installation earlier, before the end of 2026. For the third quarter, Canadian Solar guides to 3.4 GWh to 3.8 GWh of storage shipments, 3.5 GW to 3.8 GW of modules, and revenue of $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion, and it reiterated full-year guidance of 4.5 GWh to 5.5 GWh of storage and 6.5 GW to 7.0 GW of modules for the US market. Parkin said Jeffersonville ramp-up costs "will weigh on profitability for the remainder of the year."