Solar funds fall 3% after the Fed hike. The 1,137 MW of PPAs pay from 2029

The Federal Reserve raised its federal-funds target by a quarter point to 3.75%–4.00% on Wednesday, September 16, the first increase since 2023, in a unanimous vote. The 10-year Treasury yield finished Friday at 5.01%. Invesco's solar fund DTAN fell 3.2% for the week. iShares' global clean-energy tracker AICLN fell 2.0%. These are policy-and-financing businesses priced like growth stocks. This week the financing leg moved: listed names repriced on 25 basis points, and the physical pipeline is a 2029 book.

Solar after the 25-basis-point increase

DTAN is a 35-stock solar book. First Solar, Enphase Energy, and Nextpower, its three largest U.S. names at 9.8%, 6.4%, and 8.8% of assets, subtracted 1.2 percentage points on the latest weights. The fund itself fell 3.2%, so the rest of the book and the usual gap between a snapshot of holdings and a week's trading did the remainder. First Solar dropped 6.3% for the week, Enphase 4.7%, Nextpower 2.9%. First Solar's worst session of the week was Wednesday, the day of the hike: -5.6%.

Most U.S. rooftop systems are financed rather than bought with cash, which puts the loan rate under demand for Enphase's and Sunrun's home kits. First Solar sells utility-scale modules into contracted plants. The rooftop-loan rate is not First Solar's demand story, and it still dropped 6.3% for the week, more than Enphase. The offtaker on those modules is a utility under a signed contract, not a household shopping a loan. On the evidence of the week, that distinction did not protect the shares.

AICLN, at $2.10 billion the largest fund in the 17-member Clean Energy category, is not a solar fund. Utilities are 41% of the book; Bloom Energy, a fuel-cell maker, is the top holding at 9.3%. Even so, First Solar, Bloom, Enphase, and Nextpower ran through the week's decline. The global mix only partly diluted the U.S. solar names.

DTAN is down 25% over three months and sits 40% below its 52-week high of $75.60. AICLN is down 17% over three months. First Solar is down 25% year to date. Wednesday's hike landed on a market that had already been cutting the multiple.

AICLN charges 0.38%. DTAN charges 0.70%. The solar vehicle people actually use is the expensive one.

Solar and the U.S. clean-tech mix took the week's rate move. Wind and hydrogen did not.

Year-to-date leaders sit in the smaller wrappers.

Wind, hydrogen, and a fund that is not solar

First Trust's Nasdaq Clean Edge fund CQCLN had the steeper weekly decline among the liquid names, 3.4%, and it was not a solar week inside that portfolio. Tesla, Monolithic Power, and ON Semiconductor sit in the top four holdings. If you thought you owned solar, you owned a chipmaker and an EV name this week.

The wind fund held up. First Trust Global Wind Energy BFAN fell 1.1%. Utilities and industrial turbine makers, 52% and 45% of the book, are a different duration than a rooftop inverter.

Global X's hydrogen fund CHYDR was the only name in that table in the green, up 0.4%. It is also the year-to-date leader at 43%, sitting in a $98 million wrapper.

Fluence missed its Houston factory

Fluence Energy, which builds battery systems, cut fiscal 2026 guidance after the close on Wednesday, September 16. Revenue is now expected at about $2.4 billion, down from a prior midpoint of about $3.0 billion. The adjusted EBITDA loss is now about $200 million, against a prior midpoint loss of about $10 million. Chief executive Julian Nebreda pointed to delays ramping a contract manufacturing plant in Houston. The stock fell 15.4% on Thursday and 26.3% for the week, to $7.32, on a burst of volume.

The company's Form 10-K, filed November 25, 2025, and later quarterly reports describe an ongoing formal SEC investigation of its financial reporting. In a May 2026 prospectus Fluence said it believes the commission is reviewing revenue-recognition practices, a previously disclosed material weakness in internal controls, capitalization of internal-use software, and certain related-party service contracts. Several law firms announced investor investigations on Friday, September 18, after the second guidance cut of the fiscal year.

Fluence is 0.17% of iShares' storage-and-materials fund BIBAT. BIBAT fell 2.3% because Bloom Energy, BASF, Air Products, and Samsung SDI sit at the top of an 80-name book, not because a Houston factory slipped. The fund is still up 40% year to date on only $62 million of assets. Demand for storage is not the same fact as a listed manufacturer shipping on time.

Georgia's 2029 solar, nuclear rules, and a $1.9 billion loan

Georgia Power left its public-service commission on Thursday, September 10, with seven solar power-purchase agreements totaling 1,137 MW, a fixed-price book the utility said would start coming online as early as 2029.

The NRC's September 11 proposal would apply more risk-informed earthquake design rules, drop the expiration date on standard design approvals, and cut routine reporting. It is a proposed rule. Comments run 45 days after Federal Register publication.

NextEra and the Energy Department reached a combined conditional commitment and financial close on up to $1.9 billion on Tuesday, September 8, to restart the 615 MW Iowa plant, shut since 2020, no later than the first quarter of 2029, still pending NRC licensing. The loan does not sit in AICLN.

Uranium and nuclear equities live in other wrappers. Global X Uranium BURA fell 4.3%; VanEck Uranium and Nuclear ANLR fell 4.9%. Cameco is 22% of BURA. Oklo, a pre-revenue developer and a 5.6% BURA line, rose 4.9% for the week after a Thursday bounce; NuScale Power fell 3.9% and closed 8.5% lower on Friday. UBS had cut NuScale to Sell on September 11. A House vote on data-center power was cited in contemporaneous reports as Thursday's spark. The listed developers remain a trading book. The loan and the proposed rule are a 2029 book.

First Trust's smart-grid fund BGRID fell 1.4%. It is an industrials portfolio, Eaton, Quanta, Johnson Controls, ABB, Schneider, with $11.88 billion in assets, several times the entire clean-energy category's flagship. Pennsylvania's Public Utility Commission on Monday, September 14, released an independent analysis warning that data-center load in the PJM footprint is a reliability problem the commission cannot solve alone. Chairman Steve DeFrank said the issue is bigger than the PUC. A model tariff for customers of 50 MW or more was adopted in May. This week's paper was the warning.

The contracts Georgia signed will pay from 2029. Duane Arnold, if the NRC licenses the restart, is the same vintage. Fluence's missed deliveries are a 2026 factory. The Fed's quarter point is a 2026 multiple. The physical pipeline is being financed. The listed stocks are still a cost-of-capital trade.