Trina Solar Limited (ADR) (TSL), Yingli Green Energy Hold. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (YGE), Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ): This Week in Solar

Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE) saw an increased backlog of projects, but its wafer business is struggling to make money in a highly competitive solar supply market. Sales and margins were down dramatically from a year ago, and the company swung to a loss of $0.19 per share. The eventual shift to being primarily a project builder should be a good strategic move, but it was a tough transitional quarter, and investors had no patience for earnings misses this week.

Foolish bottom line
Over the next few weeks we’ll get more detail on how companies did in the second quarter, particularly in China. Trina Solar Limited (ADR) (NYSE:TSL) reports on Aug. 20, and Yingli Green Energy Hold. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:YGE) follows on Aug. 30, with smaller companies scattered throughout the back half of the month. Look for increasing margins, debt levels, and third-quarter guidance to paint the picture of how solar companies will perform in the second half of 2013.

Overall, the solar industry is doing well, but there will still be companies that fail and companies that win a disproportionate amount of business. The upside for winners is huge, but as this week showed, there’s still a lot of risk in solar stocks.

The article This Week in Solar originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Travis Hoium.

Fool contributor Travis Hoium and The Motley Fool have no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

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