BofA warns Fed risks policy mistake with early rate cuts
T1 Energy has reported its first revenues in Q4 2024, marking the beginning of its revenue-generating operations. The company, currently valued at $237 million in market capitalization, outlined ambitious future projections, including a 2025 EBITDA guidance range of $75 million to $125 million and a targeted annual run rate of $600 million to $700 million by 2027. T1 Energy also discussed its strategic initiatives, including the launch of its G1 Dallas solar module manufacturing facility and plans for the G2 Austin solar cell manufacturing facility, expected to start production in Q4 2026. According to InvestingPro analysis, the stock appears undervalued based on its Fair Value assessment, with analysts setting a unanimous price target of $4.00.
Key Takeaways
- First revenues recorded in Q4 2024 during 8 days of operations.
- EBITDA guidance for 2025 set between $75 million and $125 million.
- G1 Dallas facility production exceeded forecasts by nearly 50%.
- Strategic relocation of headquarters to Austin, Texas.
- Reclassification of European business as discontinued operations.
Company Performance
T1 Energy has transitioned into a revenue-generating company, leveraging its new G1 Dallas solar module manufacturing facility. The company has also strategically relocated its headquarters to Austin, Texas, to align with its growth ambitions. The decision to reclassify its European business as discontinued operations reflects a focused strategy on its core U.S. market.
Financial Highlights
- Revenue: First revenues realized in Q4 2024.
- EBITDA 2025 Guidance: $75 million to $125 million.
- Annual run rate target: $600 million to $700 million by 2027.
- Debt: $427 million assumed from Trina and $81 million convertible note.
- Non-cash charge: $313 million for legacy European assets.
Outlook & Guidance
T1 Energy has set an ambitious production target of 3.4 gigawatts for 2025, with plans to contract 1.5 gigawatts in offtake and maintain 1.9 gigawatts as merchant volumes. By 2027, the company aims for 60% of volumes to be contracted. The G2 Austin facility is expected to significantly contribute to future earnings, with construction slated to begin in Q2/Q3 2025.
Executive Commentary
- "T1 is now a revenue generating company with a world class operating asset." - Dan Barcello, CEO
- "We expect to have an annual run rate of $600M to $700M" - Evan Caglio, CFO
- "We are establishing a corporate culture that reflects the entrepreneurial spirit of Austin, Texas" - Dan Barcello, CEO
Risks and Challenges
- Supply Chain Disruptions: Potential delays in raw materials could impact production timelines.
- Market Competition: Increasing competition in the U.S. solar market may pressure margins.
- Regulatory Changes: Shifts in domestic content requirements could affect market dynamics.
- Economic Conditions: Macroeconomic factors, including interest rate changes, could influence financing costs.
Q&A
During the earnings call, analysts inquired about T1 Energy’s production ramp-up and offtake strategies. The company confirmed strong customer interest and ongoing facility tours, emphasizing its technology licensing advantages. Additionally, financing options for the G2 Austin facility were explored, highlighting the company’s proactive approach to its expansion plans.
Full transcript - TECO Energy Inc (TE) Q4 2024:
Conference Operator: Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the T1 Energy Fourth Quarter twenty twenty four Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question and answer Thank you. I’d now like to turn the call over to Jeffrey Spatel, EVP, Investor Relations and Corporate Development. You may begin.
Jeffrey Spatel, EVP, Investor Relations and Corporate Development, T1 Energy: Good morning, and welcome to T1 Energy’s fourth quarter and full year twenty twenty four earnings conference call. With me today on the call are Dan Barcello, our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board Evan Caglio, our Chief Financial Officer Jaime Guale, our Executive Vice President of Corporate Development Rob Gibbons, our EVP of Strategic Partnerships and Borgo Silstin, our SVP of Operations. During today’s call, management may make forward looking statements about our business. These forward looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Most of these factors are outside KeyOne’s control and are difficult to predict.
Additional information about risk factors that could materially affect our business are available in our S-one, an annual report on Form 10 K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on the Investor Relations section of our website. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Dan.
Dan Barcello, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, T1 Energy: Thanks, Jeff, and welcome, everyone, to our first quarterly earnings call as T1 Energy. To put it mildly, it has been a busy last several months following T1’s transformative acquisition of Trina Solar’s U. S. Manufacturing assets and we are excited to update you on our recent progress and our vision for the business today. Today’s headline is that this is a completely different company than when we spoke to you last in November of twenty twenty four.
T1 is now a commercial enterprise that is generating revenues and we now own and operate a state of the art manufacturing facility here in the company’s new home of Texas. And today, we announced our plans to make a significant new investment here in Texas to create jobs and provide scalable, reliable, low cost energy for America. None of this would be possible without the support of our shareholders, partners and customers for whom we are grateful. With G1 Dallas up and running, we’re excited to showcase this highly automated and efficient facility as we did recently when we hosted a group led by Goldman Sachs for our first investor tour. So, T1 is open for business.
Our teams are energized, focused and playing offense 20 fourseven to achieve the big aspirations we have for T1 in 2025 and beyond. Now let’s start on Slide four with our key messages for today. We are executing a rapid corporate transformation of T1, highlighted by the Trina acquisition and the implementation of our new strategy as one of the largest U. S. Solar module producers the launch of our corporate rebranding as T1 Energy, the relocation of our global headquarters to Austin, Texas, integration activities as part of our new organization and the start of our commercial journey with the achievement of our first revenues.
The centerpiece of this transformation is G1 Dallas, which is one of the most advanced solar module manufacturing facilities in the world. Thanks to the dedication of our operating teams, we are pleased to report this morning that the ongoing ramp of module production at G1 is proceeding considerably ahead of plan. While operations have been ramping at G1, our corporate leadership team has been working in parallel to advance the key initiatives that will drive the next phase of T1’s growth. This morning, we announced that we have finalized the selection of Sandow Lake Ranch in Milam County, Texas as a project site for our planned five gigawatt U. S.
Solar cell manufacturing facility, which will be named G2 Austin. Having closed the acquisition on schedule, the process with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is ongoing after the parties to the transaction filed a joint voluntary notice. And finally, as Evan will detail shortly, our initial twenty twenty five-twenty twenty six operational financial guidance is unchanged. We are advancing capital formation initiatives to fund construction of G2 Austin and other growth opportunities and we are pursuing non core asset sales of our legacy European portfolio. Turning to Slide five, let’s start today with an overview of T1 Energy and our value proposition.
We are now one of the largest solar module manufacturers in The United States with G1 Dallas representing roughly 10% of installed domestic capacity. Among U. S. Companies with a domestic module manufacturing footprint, we believe that T1 is the only U. S.
Company with the capability to deliver U. S. Manufactured modules with industry leading PERC and TOPCON technologies through our commercial partnership with Trina. G1 Dallas provides G1 with a state of the art U. S.
Manufacturing platform from which we intend to vertically integrate up the domestic solar value chain. Today, we announced an important next step to advance this strategy with the site selection for our Plan G2 Austin solar cell manufacturing facility and we are engaged with potential partners to accelerate further upstream on the value chain with the objective of maximizing the domestic content of our products. In the process, we expect to establish an American solar supply chain to create new jobs for the communities in which we operate. We expect to competitively differentiate T1 by pairing our domestic content strategy with our access to Trina’s technology portfolio, while we onshore solar operations and supply chain expertise. Developers want U.
S. Domestic content to maximize bonuses under the Inflation Reduction Act and to reduce the exposure tariffs, but they also demand solar and storage products that are highly energy efficient. T1 plans to deliver solutions that check all those boxes for our customers. Now let’s turn to Slide six for a look at The U. S.
Solar battery and storage opportunity that is T1’s strategic focus. Our corporate transformation positions us to build on our U. S. Solar manufacturing position and to leverage our team’s expertise in the battery market. Solary and battery storage developments are among the fastest growing resources of electricity supply in The U.
S. Based on declining costs and the speed with which our customers can bring projects online. Demand for these solutions in The U. S. Is expected to continue growing.
The emergence of power intensive industries such as AI and cryptocurrencies and the electrification of the transportation sector will necessitate significant investment in The U. S. Grid. Solar and battery storage is emerging as a preferred solution to provide low carbon, reliable, cost competitive power while enhancing grid reliability. We plan to build T1’s U.
S. Manufacturing vertical and commercial enterprise to establish a U. S. Domestic content leader in the solar and battery storage market. Turning to Slide seven, let’s review the recent progress we have made to transform T1.
As I said earlier, this is a completely different company than when we spoke last with you in November of twenty twenty four, and our transformation and growth are just the beginning. After announcing the transformative acquisition of Trina’s U. S. Soil manufacturing assets in early November, we successfully closed the transaction on an accelerated timeline in December 2024. In February, we relocated our global headquarters to Austin, Texas, which has become a hub of renewable energy talent that we can tap into to build our organization.
We’ll be moving into our new headquarters in Austin later this month. In conjunction with our relocation, we completed the sale of our Cahuida County, Georgia land for a net proceeds of $22,500,000 Later in February, we announced the launch of our global rebranding as T1 Energy. The T1 brand aligns with our vision to build American solar and battery storage supply chains to deliver scalable, reliable, low cost energy and to create American jobs as we grow our business. This morning, we are pleased to announce that we’ve selected Dandel Lakes Ranch in Millam County, Texas as a project site for our planned five gigawatt U. S.
Solar cell manufacturing facility, G2 Austin. Site selection for development of this size typically takes about a year. And thanks to the work of our project development team, we have completed the process in approximately one hundred days. We have a small team of folks working on several initiatives at once, and this achievement is a testament to the dedication and skill of T1’s people. And finally, this morning, we report that the ramp of solar module production at our G1 Dallas facility is proceeding well ahead of schedule.
T1 is now a revenue generating company with a world class operating asset. Although we are pleased that we have begun our commercial journey with our first revenues, our potential earnings power in 2027 and onward as we integrate our U. S. Solar operation is what really excites us. And as we indicated in the November 24 transaction presentation, our planned U.
S. Solar cell facility, G2 Austin, is expected to be T1’s earnings and cash flow engine as we get beyond 2026. So we are pleased to have completed and announced site selection today on our accelerated timeline. On Slide eight, we provide an update on our operations at G1 Dallas, T1’s state of the art U. S.
Solar module manufacturing facility. This morning, we reported that production output at G1 is significantly ahead of plan. For the months of January and February, actual production exceeded our forecast by nearly 50%, which speaks to the quality of our operations teams, who are working with leading edge proven production line equipment technology. With four lines already on production and construction installation activities expected to be complete during the first half of twenty twenty five, we are on track to achieve our full year 2025 production target of 3.4 gigawatts. The production output of G1 has enabled us to build an inventory buffer to ensure timely deliveries to our customers as offtake contracts are activated and merchant sales commence.
As Evan will detail shortly, we expect to convert the G1 construction loan that we inherited to a term loan from our consortium of banks in the second quarter. The loan conversion is another milestone in T1’s financial and commercial development. Going forward, our priorities for G1 are to convert the construction loan, continue our integration and knowledge sharing efforts as we staff up operations, develop our offtake portfolio of twenty twenty six and beyond through our integrated marketing and sales initiatives and drive adoption of T1’s internal safety protocols. On behalf of the T1 Board of Directors and management team, I wish to thank our people at G1 Dallas for delivering a running start from the world class operating asset. Now let’s turn to Slide nine to discuss today’s landmark announcement of our planned U.
S. Solar cell manufacturing development, G2 Austin. Today, we announced that T1 has selected Sandow Lakes Ranch in Milam County, Texas as the project site for G2 Austin. As we highlighted in the November 2024 transaction presentation, migrating upstream on The U. S.
Solar value chain into domestic cell production presents a meaningful EBITDA generation opportunity for T1. Bringing this facility online will position T1 as one of the few integrated U. S. Cell and module producers and this integration strategy is intended to provide T1’s module customers with enhanced domestic content and the potential to stack the associated Section 48E bonuses. With site selection complete, our teams are preparing to commence detailed engineering while we advance our capital formation initiative to fund constructions of G2 Austin.
Accordingly, we are still targeting a start of construction around mid year in either Q2 or Q3 twenty twenty five and we anticipate first production in Q4 twenty twenty six. Moving to Slide 10, I’ll update you on the transaction timelines and milestones. The transaction closed on the accelerated schedule in December 2024. As part of the transaction consideration, Trina’s Swiss entity received 9.9% of T1’s common equity post money and a 50,000,000 preferred tranche from Encompass Capital was issued. As previously communicated, we have submitted a voluntary filing with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States or CFIUS.
CFIUS approval is a precondition to the first anticipated share conversion we highlighted in the November transaction announcement. As we also indicated in November, a second share conversion would follow and be conditioned upon a shareholder vote later this year. And with that, I’ll turn the call over to Evan.
Evan Caglio, Chief Financial Officer, T1 Energy: Thank you, Dan. Starting on Slide 11, I’ll take you through our financials, highlights from 4Q and some key finance initiatives. As Dan mentioned, we closed the transaction shortly before year end and G1 Dallas is our first commercial asset in operations. This is a completely new company and it’s visible in the financials. The acquisition is fully reflected in our balance sheet for twelvethirty onetwenty four while the incoming cash flow statements cover eight days of G1 operations.
I’ll walk you through some of the associated changes to our financials, but this will be visible in greater detail in our 10 K that should be filed shortly. The highlights. I’ll start with P and L. I’m pleased to report that T1 is no longer a pre revenue company. During the eight days in 4Q ’twenty four, following the close of this transaction, T1 generated the first revenues in the company’s history with sales from G1 Dallas.
And we continue to make sales in Q1 twenty twenty five. With current production ramping at G1 into year end, you can see that we have significant working capital builds in inventory and other current assets such as acquire advances. On the other side of the balance sheet, current liabilities are highlighted by a $48,000,000 deferred revenue associated with customer offtakes. These are advanced payments. They reflect 50% of the quarterly price on our two cost plus offtake contracts in each quarter.
In addition, we assume long term debt of $427,000,000 from Trina and $81,000,000 convertible note as per the terms of the transaction. Turning our attention to G1 Dallas facility, we expect to complete the conversion, as Dan had mentioned, of the G1 construction loan to a term loan on or before April 30. The conversion this is important, the conversion is conditioned upon installation, commissioning, testing and an independent engineer’s opinion that all seven production lines are on and operating in their intended purpose. We’re on track to achieve that, thanks to the excellent work of Borger and our operations team. As Dan noted earlier, we are executing an accelerated global strategic transformation of T1.
While we’re building our business, staffing key positions and ramping up operations in The U. S, we are also winding down our legacy operations in Europe. Accordingly, we have reclassified our European business as discontinued operations, recorded a $313,000,000 non cash charge for our legacy assets and designated Giga Arctic and CQP as held for sale and marked down their aggregate value to $43,000,000 These assets, Giga Arctic and CQP, are held for sale and will be marked to market on a quarterly basis. We are committed to generating value for our legacy assets and we have retained a financial advisor to run a sale process for non core assets, which is focused on the Arctic. The facility is attracting interest to this location, the abundance of hydroelectric power in the region and could potentially be repurposed as a data center or for other power intensive application.
Let’s turn to slide 12. Some financial color on our G2 Austin U. S. Solar cell project. As we indicated in November, this manufacturing facility is the centerpiece of our U.
S. Solar vertical integration strategy and is the key step to developing the pathway to maximizing the domestic content of our solar modules from Q1. As Dan indicated, domestic content is demanded by utility scale developers and is attractive margins. I’d like to start by recognizing the outstanding work of our project development team in reaching site selection on an accelerated timeline. They completed the process that typically takes more than a year in approximately one hundred days, which is a meaningful achievement.
With site selection finalized on the accelerated timeline, our board has authorized the initial project development spending on G2, including feed work, and we are targeting a start of project execution in 2Q or 3Q of this year. Site selection is also a critical step and a critical T1 commitment that will allow us to execute long term offtake contracts with high credit quality offtakers for higher domestic content module. This will underpin our project financing. Finance is active in securing financing for G2, estimated eight fifty million dollars of CapEx. Firstly, we expect project finance will account for up to or exceeding 50% of the cost.
We have flexibility of other sources for the balance that include one or two mezzanine financing. We’re engaged in active discussions with potential capital providers. Two, forward 45x tax credit monetizations. This is our module, not sell, 45x, so it’s a producing asset. And remind, at full capacity, the gross amount of our annual PTCs is $259,000,000 our merchant PTCs.
Third, customer cash down payments tied to new offtake contracts. These are also in current negotiations. And as a point of reference, our RWE contract of 500 megawatts at a $40,000,000 deposit that was without domestic content. Number four, and as previously noted, the second preferred tranche of $50,000,000 from Encompass Capital, which is conditioned against certain project milestones. And really lastly, non core asset sales following the sale of our Coleta, Georgia site, which closed in February, we continue to pursue the European portfolio optimization as a potential source of funding.
We expect to have more updates in the following quarters as our finance strategy matures. Let’s move to Slide 13 for a quick review of our unchanged operational and financial guidance. Guidance is built on production, sales and cost guidance. As Dan covered, mechanical operation of the facility is pacing better than expected. On sales, we began delivering on the one gigawatt Trina contract in January and we expect the 500 megawatt RWA contract will commence later this month and maintain 500 megawatts in 2025.
Trina is our sales agent for our 1.9 gigawatts of merchant volumes in 2025 and we are in conversations with many large scale utility developers. As you can see from the summary table, this builds to a target full year 2025 EBITDA guidance range of $75,000,000 to $125,000,000 which implies an exit rate at 5.2 gigawatts of 175,000,000 to $225,000,000 And more importantly, with the project development now underway at G2, we are in the early stages of building an integrated U. S. Solar cell and module manufacturing operation, which is projected to generate an annual run rate of 600,000,000,000 to $700,000,000,000 That is the prize. So these are all busy and exciting times since answering the Q1.
We We’re grateful for the support of our investors through the initial phase of our corporate transformation and we’re committed to stacking high return opportunities to generate shareholder value. And with that, I’ll turn the call over to Jaime for an overview of T1 solar vertical integration strategy.
Jaime Guale, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, T1 Energy: Thanks Evan. Let’s move to Slide 14. The acquisition of G1 Dallas now gives T1 an American manufacturing platform to maximize U. S. Domestic content.
The start of the G2 Austin U. S. Solar cell project is the first key step to achieving that objective. Given that an American manufacturer solar module with a domestic cell would satisfy 38% of the domestic content requirements for developers. While we are constructing that facility, we will pursue options to source additional components from U.
S. Suppliers with a goal of helping our customers achieve domestic content thresholds that qualify for bonuses under Section 48E of the Inflection Reduction Act. Solar developers are looking for U. S. Partners who could supply them with proven leading edge technology solutions, provide reliable service and help them maximize these incentives.
We now have a roadmap in place to help our customers qualify for these bonuses and we are positioning T1 to be a leading strategic partner in The U. S. While we create American manufacturing jobs and deliver much needed energy at scale. And with that, I’ll turn the call back over to Dan for concluding remarks.
Dan Barcello, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, T1 Energy: Thanks, Jaime. Let’s turn now to Slide 15 before we take your questions. Following the transformative acquisition we closed in Q4, we have hit the ground running in 2025 and we are committed to generating meaningful value for our shareholders. The first element in this strategy is to advance our corporate transformation. The next items on our to do list are to complete our integration efforts with G1 Teams, optimize our U.
S. Marketing program to develop our commercial channels and to proceed through the next stages of the transaction, including the expected G1 construction loan conversion in Q2. The second piece is expansion of T1’s American made supply chain with the continued ramp of G1 Dallas production, initial project development in G2 Austin and moving forward with options to maximize our U. S. Domestic content.
The third major priority for T1 is to build a cash flow powerhouse. Now that we are generating revenue from our world class asset at G1, we are in a position to accelerate our capital formation initiatives and to evaluate additional high return opportunities on The U. S. Solar and battery storage value chains. Before we take your questions, I’ll echo Evan’s gratitude to our investors and I want to commend our employees for the dedication of T1’s mission.
We are establishing a corporate culture at T1 that reflects the entrepreneurial spirit of our new global headquarters in Austin, Texas and the financial hub in New York City. On behalf of T1’s Board of Directors and leadership team, thank you to our employees, customers, partners and investors for all that you do. And with that, I’ll turn it back to Jeff to coordinate the Q and A. Jeff?
Jeffrey Spatel, EVP, Investor Relations and Corporate Development, T1 Energy: Thanks, Sam. Operator, we’re ready to open up the lines.
Conference Operator: Your first question comes from the line of Gregory Lewis from BTIG. Your line is open.
Gregory Lewis, Analyst, BTIG: Yes. Hey, thanks and good morning everybody and thanks for taking my questions. I did want to talk a little bit about the outlook for 2025. It sounded like in the prepared remarks you mentioned off take for 1.9 gigawatts. I believe initially it was 1.5 gigawatts.
Was there any incremental offtake? And then just kind of as we think about it, then you mentioned around potential inventories, realizing that we have the 3.4 gigawatt target. The ramp seems like it’s going seems it is going better than expected. How do we think about kind of connecting dots or managing this ongoing production ramp with the offtake and really like how should we be thinking about like building ahead of those maybe some offtake contracts coming into falling into place?
Dan Barcello, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, T1 Energy: Yes. Thanks, Greg. As you mentioned, our production is very much ahead of schedule. And as we ramp that up, we’ll be fulfilling both the Trina and the RWE contracts. As we go into 2025 and as we roll through, it is all about integration with our sales agent Trina to build out those merchant and new contracted volumes and we commit to disclosing to the market as those come into place and at a minimum at a quarterly basis.
So we remain confident about that man profile. We’re very active with our sales agent, Trina, to build out that profile And we do have the quality of the product, both the QA and the QC, major utility scale customer has visited the site. There’s comfort along the quality of that. And as we as a sub licensee of those of the TRINA technology are delivering as those customers expect. Evan, if you’d like to give a little bit more color to the profile as Greg asked about.
Evan Caglio, Chief Financial Officer, T1 Energy: Yes. Hey, Greg. How are you doing, buddy? Yes, it’s 1.5 gigawatts is the off take, right? So that’s what we have.
The 1.9, it relates to merchant exposure. And as I mentioned, they’re both cost plus contracts. And one is the Trina off take has been delivering since January 1 and or we’ve been performing on that offtake and the RW contract will start up later this quarter and be in for the full effect of 2025. I think what I think the key message here is that like 30% of our volumes are contracted right now. Today’s announcement of site location is really going to catalyze the team and Rob is a new member here of the team and we’re excited.
He’s been having conversation on offtake for over a past year. As we move into our investment decision and as we look at the 2027 outlook, we expect that up to 60% of our volumes will be contracted and will be contracted under long term attractive rate type contracts. And those contracts also embed some type of ROFR element. So kind of a year prior, you could be almost 80% contracted. So as Dan mentioned, Trina is our sales agent as it relates to our merchant volumes through the transition.
But as we reach 2027, which is really the kind of free cash flow generation maturity of our business, the amount and the volatility as it relates to anything in the merchant market or as it relates to things that are non cost plus really improve over that time. Hopefully, that’s helpful.
Gregory Lewis, Analyst, BTIG: No, it’s super helpful. And then if you could talk a little bit about I guess we’re in the process of taking the initial loan to convert in and out to a term loan, as kind of 2025 plays out. Could there be an opportunity to increase liquidity from that term loan for the company as a whole? Or is it kind of just should we expect that to be more neutral?
Evan Caglio, Chief Financial Officer, T1 Energy: Yes. I think the term loan conversion itself look the important thing about the term loan conversion is that it’s happening here in April 30 is the deadline. We think it happens prior to that. And one of the requirements for that conversion is that entire 5.2 gigawatts are installed, mechanically tested, commissioned and audited by an independent engineer, right? So like mechanically, at least that risk is going better and is ahead of schedule, as Dan mentioned earlier.
In terms of additional liquidity, I think it really relates to the moment that we and here’s the sequence. We announced location today. We signed off date contracts. We begin to sign those off date contracts that underpin project financing for G2. At that point, which we’re guiding at 2Q to 3Q, there’s a larger project financing that may or may not subsume the existing G1 financing that would provide incremental liquidity for the period in which we’re going to have a heavier CapEx kind of spend.
And by year end, we’re projecting kind of a full ramp of our facility.
Gregory Lewis, Analyst, BTIG: Okay, great. And then just on the solar cell facility in Austin, I guess G2, you do a good job of laying out Slide 12 on Slide 12 the kind of the pathway forward in terms of financing. I guess as we think about in preparation for that over the next couple of quarters as I imagine the project financing kind of is coming later rather than earlier. I guess broad strokes, how are we thinking about when we’re going to start putting investing in equity to get the project rolling? And then I think you touched on this around foreign investment.
I’m definitely less familiar with this traditionally and maybe traditional it doesn’t matter in today’s world like given Trina as a partner, what should be kind of like a maybe like a base case, how much maybe money they can invest alongside G2 as it kind of we roll it out?
Dan Barcello, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, T1 Energy: Yes. Thanks, Greg. Just to be clear, we’re not looking for further investments from Trina for G2. We are anticipating to finance that through project financing, through mezzanine financing, through various measures that have in detail like 45 X production tax credit monetization, even as new sales contracts come in, those all usually come with customer cash deposits. All of those will be sources of funding for G2.
For the G2 site and for the location, you mentioned it correctly, that site location is key. That cascades into all aspects for engineering, that cascades all into all aspects for deposits for production line equipment and all of that work has been activated since we announced transaction in the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four. We have retained SSOE and JFE as engineering support for the project. We have secured power with the ground lease. We have secured water with the ground lease.
We have secured permits with the ground lease and all those activities are up and running. And right now as we finalize the production line equipment scope, we do intend to anticipate start of production around mid year. So we see that project cascading well. We’re working very effectively. And as you know, we have the license rights to the Trina technology that gives us a huge advantage in terms of suppliers, in terms of equipment and it gives us a huge advantage in terms of timelines.
So we anticipate and we’re very excited about the announcement today. Yes. And just
Evan Caglio, Chief Financial Officer, T1 Energy: to add Greg, we authorize as mentioned spending $8,000,000 right now kind of into feed. So we’re making capital spending in conjunction with the lease today and we’ll be spending money for feed up until the point that we reach that decision. And in terms of your sequencing of the capital, I think there’s two elements that can come in sooner and which are basically the deposits. So as we execute long term offtake contracts, this is what the market demands and our perspective and our view that they will include some element of deposit, which will be kind of announced when we enter those contracts. And secondly, your forward PTC monetization can happen.
So those two things happen sooner. The other two all the rest of the capital kind of comes contemporaneously.
Gregory Lewis, Analyst, BTIG: Okay, great. And then
Evan Caglio, Chief Financial Officer, T1 Energy: With the project financing, like it all comes at the same second.
Gregory Lewis, Analyst, BTIG: Great. And then just one more for me. Just given the focus on building out the customer base and getting more offtake, I mean, you took over a plant from one of the largest solar companies in the world. That’s great. Now that the facility is up and running,
Evan Caglio, Chief Financial Officer, T1 Energy: the
Gregory Lewis, Analyst, BTIG: customers want or need to come to the site to kind of do their own due diligence? Or is it something where really the due diligence is done and it’s more just around negotiations at this point?
Dan Barcello, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, T1 Energy: Yes. Look, there’s various elements. Many of these institutional utility scale customers know Trina for years, if not decades. We have had customer visits to the site to visit the new facility. A lot of it is the comfort about the new facility in The United States.
And so far as we’re getting feedback from the utility scale customers, they’re impressed and very happy with the level of sophistication and automation of the equipment. As that site keeps ramping up, we’ll be updating the market in terms of the production guidance. And as I mentioned, this is well ahead of schedule. And on the G2 side, it’s very important that as we begin construction at the middle of this year, we do look to begin production on the solar cell site by end of twenty twenty six in the fourth quarter. When we have those domestic cells, we believe that the combination of domestic cells and the combination of domestic modules will enable us to be a very important part of The U.
S. Supply chain for solar.
Evan Caglio, Chief Financial Officer, T1 Energy: Yes. We’d love to get you out of the facility and you can see the facility. And if you want to bring some investors to do a tour, I think you’ll be impressed.
Gregory Lewis, Analyst, BTIG: Sounds good, everybody. Hey, thanks for taking my time today and have a great rest of the day.
Dan Barcello, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, T1 Energy: Thank you. Thanks, everybody. Thank you for your attention.
Conference Operator: And there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Jeff Patel for closing remarks.
Jeffrey Spatel, EVP, Investor Relations and Corporate Development, T1 Energy: All right. Thank you, everyone. Appreciate everybody joining, and we will see you out on
Jaime Guale, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, T1 Energy: the road this quarter. And as Evan said, look forward to hosting people at the new facility. We’ll talk to you soon. This will conclude the call.
Conference Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
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