From pv magazine Spain and pv magazine Australia
Canadian Solar has signed a solar power purchase agreement (PPA) with e-commerce giant Amazon to help the company meet its renewable energy goals. The power will be supplied from the 146 MW/110 MW Gunnedah Solar Farm, which will reach commercial operation by 2021.
The solar project was part of a 2018 deal between Netherlands-based renewables developer Photon Energy and Canadian Solar to co-develop five New South Wales solar farms with a combined capacity of 1.14 GW. Under that agreement, Canadian Solar acquired 51% of five Photon Energy projects, including the 220 MW Gunning installation, the 160 MW Maryvale array, the 189 MW Suntop solar farm, the 200 MW Mumbil/Suntop 2 array, and the 150 MW Gunnedah PV project.
In September, Photon Energy announced it had sold its 25% stake in the Gunnedah project to Canadian Solar and voiced expectations that the transaction would be completed latest in the fourth quarter of 2019. The remaining 24% stake in the project is held by Sydney-based Polpo Investments.
“Canadian Solar is a leading developer in the Australian solar market, where we have a pipeline of nearly 1.2 GWp, including 335 MWp of projects ready to build,” said Shawn Qu, chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar. “We look forward to growing our solar projects and solar module supply businesses in Australia, while expanding into other C&I sectors in this region. We see a bright future ahead as Australia continues to expand its renewable energy market.”
Spanish solar
In a separate development, Amazon has announced that it will build a 50 MW solar power plant near Zaragoza, in eastern Spain. The facility is scheduled to begin commercial operation in 2021, the company said.
This is the second renewable energy project that the company is implementing in Spain, after the announcement of plans to build a 149 MW solar plant southeast of Seville.
Amazon has launched more than 70 renewable energy projects, adding up to more than 1.9 GW of generation capacity. Its plans include 21 large-scale solar and wind power projects and more than 50 solar rooftops on distribution and sorting centers throughout the world.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Canadian Solar is, unsurprisingly, a Canadian company which happens to be run by a man with a Chinese name. So you may wish to remove your racist-at-worst / misguided-at-best assumption from the first line of the article.
Hi Martin, Thanks for your comment. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission F1 registration form completed by Canadian Solar to register to list its shares on the Nasdaq exchange on October 23, 2006, the then-five-year-old Canadian Solar’s principal executive office was at the Xin Zhuang Industry Park in Changsu, Suzhou in the province of Jiangsu, China. I understand Canadian Solar has since moved its registered place of business to Canada but we feel it important to indicate to readers where the company’s origins lie in the interests of full disclosure and transparency. At this point, the question of the nationality of a company becomes something of an existential one, which is why we usually use the term “Sino-Canadian” or something similar in relation to this company. pv magazine has never indicated the nationality of Dr Shawn Qu.