Canadian Solar Enters Joint Venture With GCL-Poly

Canadian Solar recently entered into an agreement with GCL-Poly Solar System Integration, a subsidiary of GCL-Poly Energy, to establish a joint venture to build a manufacturing site to produce crystalline silicon solar cells in Funing, Jiangsu Province, China. Under the terms of the agreement, Canadian Solar will own 80% and GCL will own 20% of the equity in the joint venture.

In the initial phase, this new solar cell plant will have 300 MW annual production capacity. Canadian Solar expects multi-crystalline cell conversion efficiency at the Funing plant to reach 19% by the end of 2014. The new site can accommodate annual production capacity of up to 1.2 GW of solar cells, if fully built. The decision to expand beyond the initial phase will be subject to market conditions. With the addition of the Funing plant, Canadian Solar’s annual cell manufacturing capacity will total 1,560 MW, up from 1,500 MW at the end of 2013.

“By leveraging the competitive advantages of both companies, our goal is to manufacture top quality solar cells at industry leading cost structure to deliver competitive solar energy to homes around the world,” says Mr. Gongshan Zhu, chairman of GCL-Poly.

“We believe we are at the very early stages of solar energy adoption around the world, and we continue to see solid market demand for our products,” says Dr. Shawn Qu, chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar. “This joint venture further strengthens our position as a global industry leader that can deliver quality modules to meet the growing demand in existing and emerging markets.”

Additionally, Canadian Solar has recently commissioned another module workshop in its flagship factory in Changshu, Jiangsu Province, China, which brings its total annual module production capacity to 3 GW.

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