NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Canadian Solar (CSIQ) - Get Report surged 5.72% to $29.01 in morning trading Thursday after Apple (AAPL) - Get Report announced its new partnership with U.S. solar-panel manufacturer First Solar (FSLR) - Get Report on Wednesday.

Apple will spend $848 million over 25 years to get power from 130 megawatts of First Solar's California Flats Solar Project in Monterey County.

The deal, one of the largest in the solar power sector, could create a ripple effect that could spawn similar agreements among other companies.

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"This is a market-making type of transaction," Tom Werner, CEO of SunPower Corp., told Reuters. Werner added SunPower is already scurrying to complete projects before a significant federal tax credit for solar projects plunges to 10% from 30% in 2017.

Apple's deal could provide a road map for other giants such as Google (GOOG) - Get Report and Facebook (FB) - Get Report to use large solar plants to bypass utilities when they must power their operations, Reuters noted.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates CANADIAN SOLAR INC as a "hold" with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate CANADIAN SOLAR INC (CSIQ) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed - some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its robust revenue growth, notable return on equity and attractive valuation levels. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including generally higher debt management risk, poor profit margins and a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: