Canadian Solar signs power supply deal for biggest project in Alberta

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Canadian Solar has continued its efforts to reverse difficult first-quarter figures by signing a power supply deal for a project that is set to be the largest PV facility in the Canadian province of Alberta.

The Canadian-Chinese solar manufacturer and project developer supplied bifacial BiKu modules mounted on single-axis trackers for the 32 MWp/23 MWac Suffield project in the southeast of the province and last week announced it has signed a deal for Direct Energy to purchase the energy generated.

It is the latest in a string of project wins, module supply deals and power supply contracts announced since the Ontario-based cell and module manufacturer revealed it had followed up the $111.6 million banked in the final three months of last year with a $17.2 million loss in the opening quarter of this year. It was not made clear at the time whether the figures quoted were for Canadian dollars or for US$84.6 million and US$13 million, respectively.

With the Suffield project not due for completion until next year the latest PPA will have come too late to help Canadian Solar make good on its promise that Q1 reverse was a one-off. When releasing the figures, at the end of May, the company claimed to have 3.4 GW of “late stage” projects ready to be sold on, with 686 MW of generation capacity already shifted. The company today announced its Q2 figures would be announced on August 15.

Big deals brewing

The company announced a coup on June 4, with the signing of the seventh largest commercial and industrial power purchase agreement in history – with brewer Anheuser-Busch for the 310 MWp/222 MWac Maplewood project in west Texas. A deal to sell the power generated by the nearby 40 MWp/28 MWac Maplewood 2 facility to oil and gas pipeline company Energy Transfer was announced on the same day.

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Two days later, Canadian Solar said it had supplied 500 MW of its 144-cell, high efficiency polycrystalline modules to U.K. developer Solarcentury’s Cabrera and Talayuela projects in Spain.

And this month the company stated it had closed its first third-party engineering, procurement and construction services project in Vietnam – at the 15 MWp Chu Ngoc solar project owned by Licogi 16 JSC in Phú Túc, Dong Nai province.

On July 17, Canadian Solar added it had secured a 51.1 MWp project in Minas Gerais as a result of the A-4 public solar tender held in Brazil which can stake a claim to setting a new world record low price for solar. The developer announced it expects to complete that high efficiency, bifacial, polycrystalline project by January 2023.

This article was amended on 29/07/19 to add the planned date of publication for Canadian Solar’s Q2 figures.

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