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U.S. solar inventory doubled, "Made in USA" panels lost buyers' trust, and the last cheap import routes on earth got tariffed shut — all in one quarter. None of it was random. The A1 Solar Index is A1 SolarStore's quarterly read on the U.S. solar market, built on real transaction data covering pricing, inventory, and demand — it's not over.
Key takeaways
- "Made in USA" demand collapses to 1 out of 10 — a new domestic-content rule quietly disqualified much of Q1's supply.
- Inventory nearly doubles — importers stockpiled ahead of two converging tariff deadlines, not because buyers wanted more panels.
- Retail buyers lose their pricing edge — the retail-wholesale gap shrank from $0.118/W to $0.054/W in a single quarter.
- Aluminum and silver swing 20%+ on war headlines — geopolitics, not solar demand, set this quarter's raw-material costs.
The Index Closed Q2 at 84
The composite score landed at 84, up one point from Q1's 83. The steady headline hides real movement underneath, in different directions:
- Price Stability — held roughly flat, but mostly because listing prices drifted down, not because buyers actually paid less.
- Inventory Level — jumped sharply as importers front-loaded shipments ahead of tariff deadlines.
- Demand Change — stayed muted, concentrated in a handful of states and specification tiers.
The Q2 2026 A1 Solar Index is a proprietary composite indicator built on three dimensions of market health: price stability (40%), inventory levels (30%), and demand change (30%) — all sourced from real buyer transactions across A1 SolarStore, not surveys or forecasts. Here is what the data shows.
Solar pricing shifts fast. The A1 Solar Index tracks it every quarter, so you don't have to.
Explore the full Q2 2026 breakdown — price dynamics by spec and origin, inventory trends, brand rankings, and regional demand. Built entirely from real transaction data, not surveys or forecasts.
EXPLORE THE INDEX"Made in USA" Just Became Solar's Least Trusted Label
Where Did All the Affordable Solar Panels Go? Q1 2026 US Solar Market InsightDemand for US-Made panels cratered to the lowest score this report has ever recorded. The reason isn't buyers losing interest — new federal guidance just made the domestic-content tax credit much harder to actually qualify for, closing a shortcut a chunk of last quarter's supply was counting on. Pricing already reflects it: US-Made panels just posted their sharpest correction of the year, though they still cost more than any other panel we track.
Inventory Just Hit a Two-Year High — and Buyers Had Almost Nothing to Do With It
Solar panel inventory nearly doubled in three months, closing in on the all-time high set back in Q1 2025.
Line that up against the calendar, and it's not demand — it's a scramble. A cluster of tariff and export-rebate deadlines all landed within weeks of each other, giving importers a reason to land product now, under rules they understood, rather than the ones replacing them. Lead times barely moved. The real test is Q3: does this stockpile draw back down, or does the market just reset around the next deadline?
Lead times didn't move — retail held at 8 days, wholesale at 9 — so the market absorbed the flood without visible strain. The real test is Q3: whether this stockpile draws back down, or the market just resets around the next set of deadlines.
Sergey FedorovCo-founder & CTOInventory built because importers were racing the calendar, not because demand suddenly picked up. Q3 is the first real read on where this market actually stands once the stockpiling stops.
Retail Buyers Just Lost Their Biggest Edge Over Wholesale
The gap between what sellers list and what buyers actually pay is the cleanest read on who holds leverage — and retail buyers gave up most of theirs this quarter:
Retail's cushion over wholesale has largely disappeared. The 600W+ segment tells the same story from the other side: it flipped from a $0.004/W discount to a $0.138/W premium, as commercial EPCs raced to break ground before the July 4 Section 48E construction-start deadline and absorbed whatever compliant high-wattage supply was left. Bifacial and Tier-1 pricing show the same squeeze — this is a market where certainty is suddenly worth paying extra for.
Raw Materials Still Went Wild
Panel frames and cell paste don't care about solar demand — they care about geopolitics.
- Aluminum spiked to a four-year high on war fears in the Gulf, then gave back almost all of it within days on a single ceasefire rumor.
- Silver told a nearly identical story a few weeks later.
Neither move had anything to do with solar — but both are already priced into Q3's module costs.
What This Actually Means Heading Into Q3
Q2 2026 didn't answer whether the U.S. solar market is functional or just running out the clock on its next deadline — it just changed which deadline that is. This is one chapter of the full picture; the complete report breaks every one of these numbers down by spec, brand, and all nine U.S. regions.
Download the Full Q2 2026 A1 Solar Index Report
Explore the interactive breakdown — every chapter, chart, and regional read from this quarter.
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Alina has always been drawn to the intersection of technology and everyday life. Joining A1 SolarStore as a contributing writer, she brings fresh curiosity and a researcher's eye to the topics of clean energy and sustainability.
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