CHARLOTTE,
N.C. and GUELPH, ON,
Jan. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/
-- Canadian Solar Inc. ("Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ: CSIQ)
today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Recurrent Energy,
completed the sale of the 144 MWac Pflugerville Solar project to
Duke Energy Renewables, a subsidiary of Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK).
The project is under construction in Travis County, Texas and is expected to
achieve commercial operation in mid-2021. The energy generated from
the Pflugerville Solar project will be sold to Austin Energy under
a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA).
This is the fifth utility-scale project that Duke Energy
Renewables has acquired from Recurrent Energy, including the
Rambler Solar project in Texas,
which reached commercial operation in 2020.
"This sale to Duke Energy Renewables is another milestone that
demonstrates Recurrent Energy's leadership position in the United States, where we currently have
more than 5,700 MWac of solar projects under construction and
in development," said
Shawn Qu, Chairman and CEO
of Canadian Solar. "The execution and sales process for this
project was disrupted due to the COVID pandemic. However, we were
nimble and quickly secured the financing to start construction and
close the sale on time. To complete this transaction in 2020 is
quite an achievement and I thank our teams and partners for their
dedication and hard work."
Dr. Qu added, "We have a long-standing relationship with Duke
Energy Renewables and are pleased that they have become the new
owners of Pflugerville Solar, as it is a landmark project that will
power local homes in the Austin
area, supporting the clean energy transition as the Lone Star State
continues to diversify its energy mix."
"We're excited to add this terrific project to our growing
Texas solar portfolio to meet the
increasing demand for power in the state and support our
longstanding relationship with Austin Energy," said Chris Fallon, president of Duke Energy
Renewables. "In addition to providing Austin Energy's customers
with low-cost clean energy, this project will also bring
significant economic benefits to the state."
Austin Energy, the City of
Austin's electric utility, serves more than 500,000 customer
accounts and more than one million residents in Greater Austin. This PPA supports Austin
Energy's renewable energy goals, which commit the utility to
achieve at least 55 percent renewable energy by 2025, and 65
percent renewable energy by the end of 2027. The project also
supports Duke Energy's goals of doubling its renewable energy
resources by the end of 2025.
"We currently meet 63 percent of our customers' energy needs
with carbon-free resources," said Austin Energy General Manager
Jackie Sargent. "Adding the
Pflugerville Solar project to our portfolio will bring us closer to
meeting our affordability and climate protection goals adopted by
the Austin City Council and championed by our customers."
The 144 MWac Pflugerville Solar Project, will generate enough
energy to power approximately 27,000 homes. The power plant will
utilize approximately 489,600 pieces of Canadian Solar's high
efficiency bifacial BiKu modules across 932 acres in
Travis County, Texas. The
engineering and construction for the project is being performed by
Signal Energy. To support the construction of the project, in
August, Recurrent Energy closed debt and tax equity financing
totaling over $234 million. The tax
equity financing was provided by U.S. Bank and the debt financing
was provided by a bank club led by CIT Bank, which included
Norddeutsche Landesbank ("Nord/LB"), Rabobank, and Zions Bank. Duke
Energy Renewables will provide the long-term operations and
maintenance services to the project.
The project is expected to employ 350 workers at peak
construction, with at least 50% of those construction jobs expected
to be filled by local skilled tradesmen from the Travis County area. Along with indirect
economic benefits that accompany solar project development, such as
increased local spending in the service and construction
industries, Pflugerville Solar will also have a positive economic
impact on the local community by providing significant tax revenues
for Travis County and the Elgin
Independent School District.
As one of the nation's top renewable energy providers, Duke
Energy plans to double its enterprise-wide renewable portfolio from
8 GW to 16 GW by the end of 2025.
About Canadian Solar Inc.
Canadian Solar was founded in 2001 in Canada and is one of the world's largest solar
technology and renewable energy companies. It is a leading
manufacturer of solar photovoltaic modules, provider of solar
energy and battery storage solutions, and developer of
utility-scale solar power and battery storage projects with a
geographically diversified pipeline in various stages of
development. Over the past 19 years, Canadian Solar has
successfully delivered over 49 GW of premium-quality, solar
photovoltaic modules to customers in over 150 countries. Likewise,
since entering the project development business in 2010, Canadian
Solar has developed, built and connected over 5.6 GWp in over 20
countries across the world. Currently, the Company has over 500 MWp
of projects in operation, over 5 GWp of projects under construction
or in backlog (late-stage), and an additional 11 GWp of projects in
pipeline (mid- to early- stage). Canadian Solar is one of the most
bankable companies in the solar and renewable energy industry,
having been publicly listed on the NASDAQ since 2006. For
additional information about the Company, follow Canadian Solar
on LinkedIn or visit www.canadiansolar.com.
About Recurrent Energy
Recurrent Energy is a leading utility-scale solar and storage
project developer, delivering competitive, clean electricity to
large energy buyers. Based in the U.S., Recurrent Energy is a
wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian Solar Inc. and functions as
Canadian Solar's U.S. project development arm. Recurrent Energy has
approximately 5 GW of solar and storage projects in development in
the U.S. Additional details are available at
www.recurrentenergy.com.
About Duke Energy Renewables
Duke Energy Renewables, a nonregulated unit of Duke Energy,
operates wind and solar generation facilities across the U.S., with
a total electric capacity of 3,000 megawatts. Duke Energy is one of
the
nation's top renewable energy providers – on track to own or
purchase 8,000 megawatts of wind, solar and biomass energy by 2020.
The power is sold to electric utilities, electric cooperatives,
municipalities, and commercial and industrial customers. The unit
also operates energy storage and microgrid projects. Visit Duke
Energy Renewables for more information.
Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in
Charlotte, N.C., is one of the
largest energy holding companies in the U.S. It employs 30,000
people and has an electric generating capacity of 51,000 megawatts
through its regulated utilities, in addition to Duke Energy
Renewables' capacity.
Duke Energy was named to Fortune's 2019 "World's Most Admired
Companies" list, and Forbes' 2019 "America's Best Employers" list.
More information about the company is available at duke-energy.com.
The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets,
photos, videos and other materials. Duke Energy's illumination
features stories about people, innovations, community topics and
environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn,
Instagram and Facebook.
About Austin Energy
Customer Driven. Community Focused.
Austin Energy, the City of
Austin's electric utility, lights a brighter future for more
than 500,000 customer accounts and more than one million residents
in Greater Austin. The utility's
commitment to providing value powers the community and the
innovation and culture that has made Austin a destination city. Austin Energy has
powered the community for 125 years, delivering safe, affordable,
reliable energy and excellent customer service. The publicly owned
utility will continue to shine a light into the future. For more
information about Austin Energy,
visit austinenergy.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; delays in the process of
qualifying to list the MSS subsidiary in the PRC; 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 28, 2020. 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.
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SOURCE Canadian Solar Inc.