The demand for solar energy is jumping in the U.S. as more electricity consumption increases, CNBC reported, leading to a lucrative opportunity in solar stocks to buy now. What’s more, multiple industry sources say that the sector is reaching a positive turning point because Big Tech companies, in order to comply with their low-carbon pledges and power their data centers, will have to invest a great deal of money in solar.

Additionally, solar energy is cheap when compared to other energy sources and relatively easy to deploy. “As the world wakes up to the colossal energy consumption of the AI sector, the AI boom will actually help shift focus towards more sustainable solutions, with solar energy being a frontrunner,” Lars Nyman, Chief Marketing Officer of CUDO Compute told InvestorPlace in an e-mail.

For reference, CUDO provides cloud-based CPUs, data storage, and networking solutions, To benefit from the continued, rapid expansion of solar, here are three solar stocks to buy now.

First Solar (FSLR)

I’ve long touted First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) as a play on the rapid expansion of utility-scale solar energy in the U.S. For many months I’ve also noted that the company is very well-positioned to benefit from tax breaks in the U.S.

First Solar has indeed been a really big winner over the past year, jumping 41% during that period.

And, driven by the same trends, I believe that the shares look poised to continue to outperform going forward.

Also upbeat on FSLR stock is investment bank Roth MKM which expects the company to benefit a great deal from recent moves by the Biden administration to protect domestic solar producers from Chinese competitors.

First Solar has a huge backlog of 80 gigawatts, while analysts, on average, expect its earnings per share to jump to $13.57 this year from $7.74 last year. Given the company’s strong outlook, its forward price-earnings ratio of 19.8 times is quite low, making it one of the best solar stocks to buy now.

Nextracker (NXT)

Nextracker (NASDAQ:NXT) provides sun-tracking equipment for solar panels and TrueCapture, “a self-adjusting tracker control system” that optimizes the electricity production of solar panels.

Last quarter, the firm’s top line soared 42% versus the same period a year earlier while its EBITDA, excluding certain items, soared 120% year-over-year to $160 million. The firm expects its adjusted EBITDA to come in at a very impressive $600 million to $650 million this year, while its backlog stood at a very robust $4 billion as of the end of Q1.

Also importantly, Nextracker plans to build “over 25 gigawatts of annual manufacturing capacity in the US,” Bloomberg reported in March. Those projects should enable the firm to meaningfully benefit from U.S. tax breaks over the longer term.

Investor’s Business Daily gives Nextracker a high composite rating of 93 and an accumulation/distribution grade of B which indicates that large investors have been buying fairly large amounts of the stock opver the last 13 weeks.

Shoals (SHLS)

Shoals (NASDAQ:SHLS) manufactures and martlets electrical components used in solar-energy projects. Encouragingly, on June 11, the firm disclosed that it would repurchase up to $150 million of SHLS stock through the end of 2025. Further, the company intends to repurchase over 2.2 million shares by the end of next quarter. The deal indicates that the company has a great deal of confidence in its longer-term outlook.

Also encouragingly, analysts, on average, expect Shoals’ earnings per share to soar to 70 cents next year from 52 cents in 2024. As a result, SHLS stock is changing hands at a very low forward price-earnings ratio of under 10.

Also noteworthy is that 12.7% of SHLS stock is currently shorted, making the name a good candidate to undergo a short squeeze at some point in the not-too-distant future.

On the date of publication, Larry Ramer held a long position in SHLS. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.