Ontario-based Canadian Solar will build its first production facility in the US, a PV module manufacturing plant with the capacity to produce 5GW of solar modules a year.
Canadian Solar will invest US$250 million into the facility, which will be built in the town of Mesquite, to the east of Dallas, and will be the company’s first production facility in the US. In recent years, Canadian Solar has expanded its portfolio considerably, building another manufacturing facility in Brazil in 2016, and completing work on its first engineering, procurement and construction project in Vietnam in 2019.
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Texas, in particular, is an attractive investment destination for the company. Interest in renewables has been buoyed across the US by the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and the Solar Energy Industries Association estimates that Texas’ solar capacity will grow by 34.3GW over the next five years, the most among all US states, creating considerable demand for new solar manufacturing in the state.
“Canadian Solar’s new US$250 million manufacturing plant in Mesquite will bolster Texas’ status as the energy capital of the world and secure our leadership as a global tech hub,” said governor Greg Abbott, drawing attention to the benefits of the project for Texas renewable power as a whole.
Canadian Solar has already been heavily involved in the Texas solar sector, moving its US manufacturing subsidiary, Recurrent Energy, to the state in 2021.
Since then, the company has been involved in the construction and sale of a number of large-scale solar and storage projects, including the 1.4GWh Crimson storage project, which was sold to Axium Infrastructure in 2021 and began operation in 2022, and Canadian Solar’s construction of an entirely new facility will further aid its manufacturing in Texas.
The news also follows Canadian Solar’s publishing of its financial results for the first quarter of 2023, which saw a 66% year-on-year increase in solar module shipments, highlighting the growing demand for solar panels among the company’s customers. Canadian Solar also announced a 36% year-on-year increase in revenue to US$1.7 billion, and some of these funds will be immediately reinvested in the company in the new manufacturing facility.
“Establishing this factory is a key milestone that will enable us to better serve our US customers with the most advanced technology in the industry,” said Canadian Solar founder and CEO Dr Shawn Qu. “We hope that this is the first of many long-term investments we expect to make in the US as we think strategically about a sustainable and resilient clean energy supply chain.”