Canadian Solar has received the green light for 685MW of PV projects in Spain, the same week that it announced commercial operation of three Japanese solar plants totalling 42MWp.
Favourable environmental impact assessments (EIA) were received for the six Spanish projects, spread across the Castilla Y Léon and Andalucía autonomous communities. Construction is expected to begin this year, with commercial operation expected by 2025.
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EIAs encompass direct and indirect impacts that solar PV projects have on surrounding environments, including biodiversity, land, soil, water and local community concerns.
Last month the Ministry of Ecological Transition in Spain gave favourable EIAs to 25GW of solar PV capacity, clearing the backlog of projects awaiting approval by 25 January 2023. The flurry of approvals has led industry commentators to warn of a shortage of engineering, procurement and construction contractors as all of the projects seek to move forward.
A Solar Module Super League Member, Canadian solar’s Spanish PV portfolio is now in excess of 2GW across six autonomous communities.
Also this week, in Japan, the company has commenced commercial operations on three PV plants – Oita Kitsuki, Gunma Takasaki and Yamaguchi Hofu – totalling 42MWp together. The projects are set to produce around 53,000MWh of electricity to Japan’s grid, which is being purchased by regional grid operators under the country’s feed-in tariff programme.
All of the projects utilise Canadian Solar’s bifacial BiHiKu passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) modules.
“We are delighted to be part of the green transformation that Japan is going through with these additions to our portfolio,” said Shawn Qu, chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar.
“The Oita Kitsuki project was our first project where we installed a static synchronous compensator (STATCOM), a more challenging power quality requirement that will meaningfully help improve the grid’s reliability given the growing number of interconnected solar farms.”
Qu continued: “These projects continue to expand Canadian Solar’s strong track record in Japan as we keep developing our business in a sustainable and responsible manner and contributing to Japan’s carbon neutrality goal. We now have over 518MWp of utility-scale projects in operation or under construction.”