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4 Solar Stocks to Watch With Robust Growth & Steady Long-Term Outlook
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The U.S. solar industry is experiencing strong underlying momentum, with utilities, businesses and households increasingly adopting solar and storage. Installations reached 11.7 GWdc in the third quarter of 2025, while project delays eased. However, recent federal policy changes have created near-term uncertainty, complicating permitting, procurement and supply-chain planning. Despite a 12% drop in module prices, elevated U.S. tariffs have pushed commercial and utility-scale system costs higher. These policy and tariff pressures are squeezing margins and heightening project risk. A few prominent players in this industry that solar investors may like to watch are Sunrun (RUN - Free Report) , Canadian Solar (CSIQ - Free Report) , FTC Solar (FTCI - Free Report) and Tigo Energy, Inc. (TYGO - Free Report) .
About the Industry
The Zacks Solar industry can be fundamentally categorized into two groups of companies. While one is involved in designing and producing high-efficiency solar modules, panels and cells, the other is engaged in installing grids and, in some cases, entire solar power systems. The industry also includes a handful of companies that manufacture inverters for solar power systems, which convert solar power from modules into electricity required by electric grids. Per a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association (“SEIA”), published on Dec. 8, 2025, solar accounted for 58% of all new electricity-generating capacity added to the U.S. grid through the third quarter of 2025, with more than 30 gigawatt (GW) installed. Hence, it remains the nation's dominant form of new generating capacity.
3 Trends Shaping the Future of the Solar Industry
Strong Momentum Lifts Outlook: Utilities, businesses, and households are increasingly adopting solar power — especially systems paired with battery storage — to advance decarbonization, strengthen energy resilience and protect against rising electricity prices. As reported by SEIA, the U.S. solar industry installed 11.7 GWdc of new solar capacity during the third quarter of 2025, reflecting a 20% year-over-year increase. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (“EIA”) reported that solar remains the fastest-growing source of new electric-generating capacity, driven by the rapid buildout of large-scale photovoltaic (PV) projects by utilities and independent power producers. The EIA reported improvement in project timelines — just 20% of planned solar capacity faced delays in the third quarter of 2025, down from 25% a year ago. EIA also stated that developers further expect to bring 32 GW of new solar capacity online between October 2025 and September 2026. Such strong growth indicators and declining project bottlenecks should bode well for U.S. solar stocks.
Regulatory Friction Rises, Yet Industry Fundamentals Remain Strong: The U.S. government has recently implemented several policy measures that may create near-term headwinds for the nation’s solar industry, with the most consequential being the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Signed into law in July, the OBBBA sharply curtails a number of federal tax credits established under the Inflation Reduction Act and introduces new Foreign Entity of Concern (“FEOC”) requirements that could restrict access to key components and supply chains. According to SEIA’s December 2025 report, the industry has spent the months following the bill’s passage adjusting to a policy landscape that remains fluid and far from settled. Developers continue to face uncertainty around federal permitting decisions, and detailed Treasury guidance on FEOC compliance is still expected to take months to materialize. As a result, planning and procurement have become more complex. Even so, SEIA’s base-case outlook for 2025-2030 suggests 246 GWdc of total solar installations, which effectively remained unchanged from its September 2025 projection. This indicates that long-term demand remains resilient despite the new challenges.
Rising Tariff Pressures Strain Solar Economics: The heightened U.S. tariffs on imported goods have been negatively impacting nearly all industries, and solar is no exception. As expected, these tariffs have increased manufacturing costs for solar companies, which were already grappling with raw-material shortages due to global supply-chain challenges. According to SEIA report, module prices fell an average of 12% year over year across all segments, caused by expanded manufacturing capacity and higher-output Topcon cell technology. Residential system prices declined 3%, as lower module and inverter costs offset increases in other categories.
SEIA also mentioned that commercial system pricing rose 9% in the third quarter of 2025, primarily due to a 50% year-over-year surge in balance-of-electrical-system and racking costs, which more than offset savings from cheaper modules. Utility-scale costs also climbed — fixed-tilt systems increased 9%, while single-axis tracking systems rose 10%. These increases stem largely from an 8% rise in balance-of-electrical-system costs tied to new commodity tariffs. Labor costs rose 15% year over year, and EPC overhead and margins jumped nearly 40%, reflecting greater project risk amid ongoing policy and tariff uncertainty.
Zacks Industry Rank Reflects Bright Outlook
The Zacks Solar industry is housed within the broader Zacks Oils-Energy sector. It currently carries a Zacks Industry Rank #61, which places it in the top 25% of more than 243 Zacks industries.
The group’s Zacks Industry Rank, which is basically the average of the Zacks Rank of all the member stocks, indicates bleak near-term prospects. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.
Before we present a few solar stocks that you may want to consider for your portfolio, let’s take a look at the industry’s recent stock-market performance and valuation picture.
Industry Beats Sector & S&P 500
The solar industry has outperformed both its sector and the Zacks S&P 500 composite over the past year. The stocks in this industry have collectively increased 17.7% in the past year, while the Oils-Energy sector rose 4.7%. The Zacks S&P 500 composite has surged 16.3% in the same time frame.
One-Year Price Performance
Industry's Current Valuation
On the basis of a trailing 12-month EV/EBITDA, which is commonly used for valuing solar stocks, the industry is currently trading at 6.22X compared with the S&P 500’s 18.74X and the sector’s 5.5X.
Over the past five years, the industry has traded as high as 49.36X, as low as 4.32X and at the median of 18.27X.
EV-EBITDA Ratio (TTM)
4 Solar Stocks to Watch
FTC Solar: Based in Austin, TX, the company is a provider of solar tracker systems, technology, software and engineering services. On Nov. 11, 2025, FTCI published white paper on automation-ready construction with 1P pioneer tracker. This positions the company to benefit as the industry pushes for cheaper and more scalable utility-scale deployment. By showcasing features that simplify and speed up installation, FTC Solar strengthens its value proposition at a time when developers face labor shortages and tighten project timelines.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FTC Solar’s 2025 sales indicates an improvement of 108.6% from the prior-year reported figure. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings per share (EPS) indicates an increase of 33.6% from the prior-year reported figure. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Price & Consensus: FTCI
Canadian Solar: Based in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, the company is one of the leading manufacturers of solar PV modules and a provider of solar energy and battery energy storage solutions. On Dec. 2, 2025, CSIQ’s subsidiary Recurrent Energy was granted a Development Consent Order (DCO) for its Tillbridge solar and battery energy storage project, located in Lincolnshire, England. The proposed project combines 800 MW of solar PV and 500 MW/1,000 MWh of battery energy storage.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Canadian Solar’s fourth-quarter 2025 EPS indicates an increase of 25.2% year over year. The consensus estimate for 2025 earnings has improved 18.9% over the past 30 days. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.
Price & Consensus: CSIQ
Tigo Energy: Based in Campbell, CA, the company is a provider of intelligent solar and energy storage solutions. On Nov. 6, 2025, Tigo Energy announced that the move to fully digital installation resources, which should enhance installer efficiency, reduce errors, and lower support costs by ensuring that installers always have the most current information. This streamlined, modernized experience makes Tigo Energy’s products easier and faster to deploy, strengthening its appeal with global installers and EPCs.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Tigo Energy’s 2025 sales indicates an improvement of 91.9% from the prior-year reported figure. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 EPS indicates an increase of 76% from the prior-year reported figure. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Price & Consensus: TYGO
Sunrun: Based in San Francisco, CA, the company develops, owns, manages and sells residential solar energy systems. On Nov. 6, 2025 the company announced its third-quarter results. Sunrun is benefiting from storage-first strategy, with customer additions that include storage rising 20% year over year and the storage attachment rate increasing to 70%. The company now operates over 217,000 solar-and-storage systems, totaling roughly 3.7 GWh of networked storage capacity.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Sunrun’s 2025 sales indicates an improvement of 20.7% from the prior-year reported figure. The consensus estimate for 2025 earnings has improved 20.8% over the past seven days. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.
Price & Consensus: RUN
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4 Solar Stocks to Watch With Robust Growth & Steady Long-Term Outlook
The U.S. solar industry is experiencing strong underlying momentum, with utilities, businesses and households increasingly adopting solar and storage. Installations reached 11.7 GWdc in the third quarter of 2025, while project delays eased. However, recent federal policy changes have created near-term uncertainty, complicating permitting, procurement and supply-chain planning. Despite a 12% drop in module prices, elevated U.S. tariffs have pushed commercial and utility-scale system costs higher. These policy and tariff pressures are squeezing margins and heightening project risk. A few prominent players in this industry that solar investors may like to watch are Sunrun (RUN - Free Report) , Canadian Solar (CSIQ - Free Report) , FTC Solar (FTCI - Free Report) and Tigo Energy, Inc. (TYGO - Free Report) .
About the Industry
The Zacks Solar industry can be fundamentally categorized into two groups of companies. While one is involved in designing and producing high-efficiency solar modules, panels and cells, the other is engaged in installing grids and, in some cases, entire solar power systems. The industry also includes a handful of companies that manufacture inverters for solar power systems, which convert solar power from modules into electricity required by electric grids. Per a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association (“SEIA”), published on Dec. 8, 2025, solar accounted for 58% of all new electricity-generating capacity added to the U.S. grid through the third quarter of 2025, with more than 30 gigawatt (GW) installed. Hence, it remains the nation's dominant form of new generating capacity.
3 Trends Shaping the Future of the Solar Industry
Strong Momentum Lifts Outlook: Utilities, businesses, and households are increasingly adopting solar power — especially systems paired with battery storage — to advance decarbonization, strengthen energy resilience and protect against rising electricity prices. As reported by SEIA, the U.S. solar industry installed 11.7 GWdc of new solar capacity during the third quarter of 2025, reflecting a 20% year-over-year increase. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (“EIA”) reported that solar remains the fastest-growing source of new electric-generating capacity, driven by the rapid buildout of large-scale photovoltaic (PV) projects by utilities and independent power producers. The EIA reported improvement in project timelines — just 20% of planned solar capacity faced delays in the third quarter of 2025, down from 25% a year ago. EIA also stated that developers further expect to bring 32 GW of new solar capacity online between October 2025 and September 2026. Such strong growth indicators and declining project bottlenecks should bode well for U.S. solar stocks.
Regulatory Friction Rises, Yet Industry Fundamentals Remain Strong: The U.S. government has recently implemented several policy measures that may create near-term headwinds for the nation’s solar industry, with the most consequential being the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Signed into law in July, the OBBBA sharply curtails a number of federal tax credits established under the Inflation Reduction Act and introduces new Foreign Entity of Concern (“FEOC”) requirements that could restrict access to key components and supply chains. According to SEIA’s December 2025 report, the industry has spent the months following the bill’s passage adjusting to a policy landscape that remains fluid and far from settled. Developers continue to face uncertainty around federal permitting decisions, and detailed Treasury guidance on FEOC compliance is still expected to take months to materialize. As a result, planning and procurement have become more complex. Even so, SEIA’s base-case outlook for 2025-2030 suggests 246 GWdc of total solar installations, which effectively remained unchanged from its September 2025 projection. This indicates that long-term demand remains resilient despite the new challenges.
Rising Tariff Pressures Strain Solar Economics: The heightened U.S. tariffs on imported goods have been negatively impacting nearly all industries, and solar is no exception. As expected, these tariffs have increased manufacturing costs for solar companies, which were already grappling with raw-material shortages due to global supply-chain challenges. According to SEIA report, module prices fell an average of 12% year over year across all segments, caused by expanded manufacturing capacity and higher-output Topcon cell technology. Residential system prices declined 3%, as lower module and inverter costs offset increases in other categories.
SEIA also mentioned that commercial system pricing rose 9% in the third quarter of 2025, primarily due to a 50% year-over-year surge in balance-of-electrical-system and racking costs, which more than offset savings from cheaper modules. Utility-scale costs also climbed — fixed-tilt systems increased 9%, while single-axis tracking systems rose 10%. These increases stem largely from an 8% rise in balance-of-electrical-system costs tied to new commodity tariffs. Labor costs rose 15% year over year, and EPC overhead and margins jumped nearly 40%, reflecting greater project risk amid ongoing policy and tariff uncertainty.
Zacks Industry Rank Reflects Bright Outlook
The Zacks Solar industry is housed within the broader Zacks Oils-Energy sector. It currently carries a Zacks Industry Rank #61, which places it in the top 25% of more than 243 Zacks industries.
The group’s Zacks Industry Rank, which is basically the average of the Zacks Rank of all the member stocks, indicates bleak near-term prospects. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.
Before we present a few solar stocks that you may want to consider for your portfolio, let’s take a look at the industry’s recent stock-market performance and valuation picture.
Industry Beats Sector & S&P 500
The solar industry has outperformed both its sector and the Zacks S&P 500 composite over the past year. The stocks in this industry have collectively increased 17.7% in the past year, while the Oils-Energy sector rose 4.7%. The Zacks S&P 500 composite has surged 16.3% in the same time frame.
One-Year Price Performance
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Industry's Current Valuation
On the basis of a trailing 12-month EV/EBITDA, which is commonly used for valuing solar stocks, the industry is currently trading at 6.22X compared with the S&P 500’s 18.74X and the sector’s 5.5X.
Over the past five years, the industry has traded as high as 49.36X, as low as 4.32X and at the median of 18.27X.
EV-EBITDA Ratio (TTM)
4 Solar Stocks to Watch
FTC Solar: Based in Austin, TX, the company is a provider of solar tracker systems, technology, software and engineering services. On Nov. 11, 2025, FTCI published white paper on automation-ready construction with 1P pioneer tracker. This positions the company to benefit as the industry pushes for cheaper and more scalable utility-scale deployment. By showcasing features that simplify and speed up installation, FTC Solar strengthens its value proposition at a time when developers face labor shortages and tighten project timelines.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FTC Solar’s 2025 sales indicates an improvement of 108.6% from the prior-year reported figure. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings per share (EPS) indicates an increase of 33.6% from the prior-year reported figure. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Price & Consensus: FTCI
Canadian Solar: Based in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, the company is one of the leading manufacturers of solar PV modules and a provider of solar energy and battery energy storage solutions. On Dec. 2, 2025, CSIQ’s subsidiary Recurrent Energy was granted a Development Consent Order (DCO) for its Tillbridge solar and battery energy storage project, located in Lincolnshire, England. The proposed project combines 800 MW of solar PV and 500 MW/1,000 MWh of battery energy storage.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Canadian Solar’s fourth-quarter 2025 EPS indicates an increase of 25.2% year over year. The consensus estimate for 2025 earnings has improved 18.9% over the past 30 days. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.
Price & Consensus: CSIQ
Tigo Energy: Based in Campbell, CA, the company is a provider of intelligent solar and energy storage solutions. On Nov. 6, 2025, Tigo Energy announced that the move to fully digital installation resources, which should enhance installer efficiency, reduce errors, and lower support costs by ensuring that installers always have the most current information. This streamlined, modernized experience makes Tigo Energy’s products easier and faster to deploy, strengthening its appeal with global installers and EPCs.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Tigo Energy’s 2025 sales indicates an improvement of 91.9% from the prior-year reported figure. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 EPS indicates an increase of 76% from the prior-year reported figure. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Price & Consensus: TYGO
Sunrun: Based in San Francisco, CA, the company develops, owns, manages and sells residential solar energy systems. On Nov. 6, 2025 the company announced its third-quarter results. Sunrun is benefiting from storage-first strategy, with customer additions that include storage rising 20% year over year and the storage attachment rate increasing to 70%. The company now operates over 217,000 solar-and-storage systems, totaling roughly 3.7 GWh of networked storage capacity.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Sunrun’s 2025 sales indicates an improvement of 20.7% from the prior-year reported figure. The consensus estimate for 2025 earnings has improved 20.8% over the past seven days. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.
Price & Consensus: RUN
