Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ), announced its first solar power project of 68 MWp in Mexico started commercial operations in January 2019.
The solar plant, located in Aguascalientes, Mexico, is powered by over 200,000 Canadian Solar high-efficiency poly modules CS6U-P. The plant will generate 145 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity annually, enough to power 20,690 households and offset 72,700 tons of carbon dioxide emission each year. In addition to that, a total of 535 jobs were created during the PV plant construction and more than 15 new jobs are expected to be created for operations and maintenance during the upcoming 20 years the plant is in operation. Canadian Solar will provide operations and maintenance services to the plant.
Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar commented, “Achieving commercial operations for the Aguascalientes project is a significant milestone for Canadian Solar. This definitely strengthens our position as a leading solar project developer in Mexico and Latin America. Mexico is a very important new market for us where we started solar project development business three years ago. We have a remaining pipeline of 368 MWp of solar projects in Mexico with awarded power purchase agreements. Construction of these late-stage projects will soon start and commercial operations will be achieved in 2020.”
Canadian Solar competed for and won the Aguascalientes project in the first Long Term Auction in Mexico in 2016. According to the contract agreement, the electricity generated will be sold to Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) under a 15-year PPA for energy and capacity, and 20-year for Clean Energy Certificates.
