GUELPH, Ontario, April 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Canadian Solar
Inc., (the "Company", or "Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ:CSIQ), one of
the world's largest solar power companies, and EDF Renewables, a
global market leader in renewable energy, today announced that
their jointly-owned 191.5 MWp Pirapora I solar power project was
named by Infrastructure Journal Global (IJGlobal) as the Latin
America Multisourced Deal of the Year at the IJGlobal Awards on
March 15. The project is located in
the Minas Gerais State of Brazil with 80% ownership by EDF
Renewables and 20% by Canadian Solar.
The IJGlobal Awards are selected annually by an expert panel of
judges and are a celebration of the best in class deals in energy
and infrastructure in each region. Other award winners this year
include JP Morgan and Asian Development Bank.
Pirapora I is the first-ever solar power generation plant
financed by Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), with funding
entirely from TJLP (Brazilian Long Term Interest Rate). As one of
the world's largest development banks, BNDES allocates the best
terms of credit to renewable energy projects to induce economic
development in projects with positive externalities, including
environmental and social impact. This project was successfully
commissioned in November 2017.
The funding commitment for Pirapora I also includes a short-term
construction bridge loan in Brazilian Reais provided by IDB Invest,
the private sector institution of the Inter-American Development
Bank Group (IDB). The IDB is the largest multilateral financing
institution for development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Banco Itaú BBA S.A., Banco Société
Générale Brasil S.A. and Banco ABC Brasil S.A. also provided
construction financing as underwriters of a Brazilian Reais
denominated unsecured debenture.
"We are delighted that Pirapora I is being recognized with this
award, which acknowledges our contribution along with EDF
Renewables towards developing one of Brazil's largest solar power plants. Pirapora
I is among the first solar projects to close project finance under
the Brazil Reserve Energy Auctions scheme," commented Dr.
Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of Canadian Solar. "Latin America is an important market for us
and we look forward to working with our partners to increase solar
power investments in the region."
Bruno Fyot, COO of EDF Energies Nouvelles' Group, added: "This
award underlines the excellence of our Pirapora solar project and
constitutes further evidence of our deep interest in realizing
renewable energy large-scale projects comprising innovation, local
development and socio-environmental contents."
About Canadian Solar Inc.
Founded in 2001 in Canada,
Canadian Solar is one of the world's largest and foremost solar
power companies. As a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic
modules and provider of solar energy solutions, Canadian Solar also
has a geographically diversified pipeline of utility-scale power
projects in various stages of development. In the past 17 years,
Canadian Solar has successfully delivered over 26 GW of premium
quality modules to over 100 countries around the world.
Furthermore, Canadian Solar is one of the most bankable companies
in the solar industry, having been publicly listed on NASDAQ since
2006. For additional information about the company, follow Canadian
Solar on LinkedIn or visit www.canadiansolar.com.
Safe Harbor/Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking
statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that
could cause actual results to differ materially. These statements
are made under the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can
identify forward-looking statements by such terms as "believes,"
"expects," "anticipates," "intends," "estimates," the negative of
these terms, or other comparable terminology. Factors that could
cause actual results to differ include general business and
economic conditions and the state of the solar industry;
governmental support for the deployment of solar power; future
available supplies of high-purity silicon; demand for end-use
products by consumers and inventory levels of such products in the
supply chain; changes in demand from significant customers; changes
in demand from major markets such as Japan, the U.S., India and China; changes in customer order patterns;
changes in product mix; capacity utilization; level of competition;
pricing pressure and declines in average selling prices; delays in
new product introduction; delays in utility-scale project approval
process; delays in utility-scale project construction; delays in
the completion of project sales; continued success in technological
innovations and delivery of products with the features customers
demand; shortage in supply of materials or capacity requirements;
availability of financing; exchange rate fluctuations; litigation
and other risks as described in the Company's SEC filings,
including its annual report on Form 20-F filed on April 27, 2017. Although the Company believes
that the expectations reflected in the forward looking statements
are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, level of
activity, performance, or achievements. Investors should not place
undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All information
provided in this press release is as of today's date, unless
otherwise stated, and Canadian Solar undertakes no duty to update
such information, except as required under applicable law.
About EDF Energies Nouvelles group / EDF Renewables, in
Brazil
EDF Energies Nouvelles group is a market leader in
renewable energy electricity, with a portfolio of more than 12 GW
gross installed capacity focused for the most part on wind (onshore
and offshore) and solar photovoltaic energy. Mostly operating in
Europe and North America, EDF Energies Nouvelles
continues its development by taking strong positions in promising
emerging areas such as Brazil,
China, India, or South
Africa, and North Africa
and Gulf Cooperation Council regions. The Company is also present
in other segments of the renewable energy market: marine energy,
distributed energies and energy storage. EDF Energies Nouvelles
manages renewable energy projects' development and construction as
well as operations and maintenance for its own account and for
third parties. The majority of its international subsidiaries is
branded EDF Renewables. EDF Energies Nouvelles is a subsidiary of
the EDF Group dedicated to renewable energy.
EDF Renewables' portfolio in Brazil consists of 700 MW of wind and
solar projects under development and operating.
Visit us at www.edf-energies-nouvelles.com
Follow us on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/edf-energies-nouvelles and on
Twitter @EDFEN_officiel in French, and @EDF_Renewables in
English.
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SOURCE Canadian Solar Inc.