Canadian Solar

Canadian Solar has been acquiring utility-scale projects and signing module supply and EPC deals at a rapid pace in recent months. Shawn Qu, Canadian Solar’s founder and CEO, would prefer the market to continue at a stable level, rather than boom and bust. And he argues that the dual role of module maker and developer delivers valuable insights into pricing and technology trends — giving the company an advantage over rivals. 

The capacity comes from two solar parks and five wind power plants awarded firm energy obligations for 2022-2023. The Reliability Charge auctions were created by the Colombian government to ensure power supply during water shortages.

After receiving its cheapest bids for large-scale solar under a public tender a week ago, the Canadian province of Alberta is now ready to host two unsubsidized solar parks with a combined capacity of 57 MW. The developer, German renewable energy company Innogy, is in talks with local off-takers about signing a PPA.

Analysts at PV InfoLink said the number of markets open to new technologies such as half-cut and shingled panels is constantly rising. Australia, Japan, Spain, the UAE and Brazil were cited as the hottest markets for Chinese “special modules”. Total annual production in China for half-cut modules, which are set to increase their market share this year, should reach around 20 GW.

That was the one of the main conclusions reached among 400 attendees at the Solar plants in Spain: development, financing and energy future conference, organized by Soltec and PV association UNEF in Madrid this week.

The Albertan Ministry of Infrastructure allocated around 94 MW of solar capacity and the three selected projects, all using bifacial modules, were secured by Canadian Solar. The projects will generate around 55% of the provincial government’s annual electricity needs.

The Ontario firm has revised figures for shipments, net revenue and gross margin after seeing better-than-expected trading in the final three months of 2018.

The plant, under development by Canadian Solar, has secured $80 million from Banco do Nordeste. The facility is scheduled to come online in mid-2020.

The São Pedro solar complex is in Bom Jesus da Lapa, Bahia state. The plant, awarded a 20-year PPA in Brazil’s 2015 renewable energy auction, was installed with Jinko and Canadian Solar modules. The latter makes modules in São Paulo.

The 23 MW Suffield Solar Project is under development by Chinese-Canadian company Canadian Solar in Alberta. The project received CA$15.3 million in funds from the federal government under the Emerging Renewable Power Program.