Tesla’s planned solar factory in Texas has landed in the middle of a US patent lawsuit between two Chinese solar equipment makers, both chasing the ingot-growing furnaces Tesla needs to hit its 100 GW goal.

Linton Crystal Technologies, a Rochester, New York company wholly owned by China’s Dalian Linton, sued Zhejiang Jingsheng in a Texas federal court last week. Chinese industry reports say Jingsheng won a roughly 3 billion yuan (about $420 million) Tesla order for crystal pullers earlier this year.

Tesla’s abrupt decision to kill its Solar Roof has left the third-party contractors who sold and installed the product absorbing the fallout — including some who told Electrek they sank hundreds of thousands of dollars into the program and now have little to show for it.

Tesla stopped supplying the solar tiles in August, notifying its network of certified installers that it would ship only conventional solar panels going forward.

Tesla has signed a long-term power purchase agreement to buy the entire output of a 140-MWac solar farm being built in northeast Texas.

The plant, called Lumen Farm, is being developed by Zelestra, an EQT-backed renewable developer. Construction is expected to start in 2027, with the farm going online in 2029.