Canadian Solar announced on December 14th the commercial operation of the 200 MWac/272 MWp Garland Solar Facility in California. The Garland Solar Facility was developed by Canadian Solar's wholly owned subsidiary Recurrent Energy and is majority owned by Southern Company subsidiary Southern Power.

The Garland facility uses approximately 723,000 Canadian Solar high performance CS6X-P photovoltaic (PV) solar modules mounted on single-axis tracking tables. It generates enough clean solar power to meet the energy needs of approximately 50,000 homes.

"The completion of the Garland project is another example of the Recurrent Energy team's high-quality execution on our 1.2 gigawatts of 2016 U.S. solar projects," said Dr. Shawn Qu, chairman and chief executive officer of Canadian Solar.

The facility, which represents Recurrent Energy's ninth completed solar project in Kern County, California, created 572 peak construction jobs. Signal Energy Constructors provided engineering, procurement and construction services.

Electricity and the associated renewable energy credits (RECs) produced by the Garland Solar Facility will be sold under long-term power purchase agreements to Southern California Edison (SCE).