Canadian Solar Inc. (the "Company" or "Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ: CSIQ) announced today the sale of the remaining 30% ownership of the Big Fish SPV S.r.l. ("Big Fish") and Iron SPV S.r.l. ("Iron") solar projects to Falck Renewables. Both projects are located in Sicily, Italy, and have a total expected capacity of more than 290 MWp. The Company expects to recognize revenues from the sale in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Canadian Solar partnered with Falck Renewables back in 2019 to jointly develop the Big Fish and Iron projects, selling 70% ownership of the projects to Falck Renewables. Since then, the projects have successfully secured grid connection and preliminary land rights, and have also applied for permits and authorizations.
Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar commented, "We are pleased to have partnered with Falck Renewables in this initiative which allowed us to broaden our portfolio in Italy and has brought development progress to our projects. Going forward, our strategy in Italy will focus on growing and diversifying our pipeline, currently in excess of 1.3 GWp across various regions in the country, with around 140 MWp expected to reach notice-to-proceed (NTP) in 2021. We will also focus on securing long term energy sale agreements and maximize the value we generate from our projects."
Dr. Qu added, "Italy is one of the countries in Europe where solar energy has reached grid parity at the wholesale level, and therefore we expect the growth of energy sale agreements to accelerate in the following years. This is supportive of the ambitious goals set by the government to substantially increase its solar PV installed capacity over the next decade. As the energy market shows modest but positive signs of improvement from the COVID impact, we see new attractive opportunities in the private PPA market. We are excited about the opportunities in Italy, which represents one of Canadian Solar's strongest core markets in the EMEA region, and expect to gain market share and solidify our position as one of the leading players in the Italian solar PV market."
About Canadian Solar Inc.
Canadian Solar was founded in 2001 in Canada and is one of the world's largest solar power companies. It is a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic modules and provider of solar energy solutions and has a geographically diversified pipeline of utility-scale solar power projects 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. 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; 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.
