Canadian Solar Inc. (Nasdaq: CSIQ), and SkyPower Limited announced, a third engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agreement to build a 10.5 MW solar park in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Canadian Solar is one of the world's largest solar power companies. SkyPower is Canada's largest owner and developer of large-scale solar projects and most recently was awarded 148.3 MW through thirteen power purchase agreements by the Ontario Power Authority under the Feed-in Tariff Program.
This EPC agreement is in addition to two previous EPC agreements signed by both companies in December 2010. SkyPower closed financing with Deutsche Bank on these projects late last year. The previous 18.5 MW EPC agreement consists of a 10.5 MW solar park in Napanee, home to First Light I, (SkyPower's first solar project and Canada's first fully operational solar park). The second project is an 8.5 MW solar park located on Thunder Bay International Airport Authority land with the third being the 10.5 MW project in Thunder Bay on Fort William First Nation land.
Once fully operational, the combined total for these projects is approximately 30 MW of nameplate capacity and are expected to create hundreds of new clean energy jobs to further accelerate both the Canadian Solar EPC turn-key business and the successful completion of these SkyPower solar parks in Ontario.
"In continuing with the growth of Canadian Solar and our working partnership withSkyPower, this next collaboration strengthens our position as a leader in turnkey solution providers for utility scale and commercial systems in Ontario," said Dr. Shawn Qu, CEO and President of Canadian Solar. "We see great synergy in manufacturing the solar panels and incorporating them into an overall system design to optimize performance and value for our customers while contributing to the reduction of our carbon imprint as a by-product of our joint achievements."
The construction of all three projects is expected to reach completion by third quarter 2011. Together, they are expected to generate approximately 28 million KWh in their first full year of operation and almost 600 million kWh total over the next 20 years. This is equivalent to producing enough electricity to power almost 50,000 homes and a CO2 offset of removing almost 90,000 cars off the road over the initial 20 years of the project.
"As Canada's largest developer and owner of solar projects, we are pleased to expand our relationship with Canadian Solar and once again select them to build this important project," said Kerry Adler, President and Chief Executive Officer of SkyPower. "We look forward to the completion of these three solar projects as we continue to build out our extensive solar pipeline across the Province, which will to bring an abundance of economic, environmental and health benefits to the communities where we are actively building.
