Canadian Solar’s first photovoltaic plant in Mexico is now fully operational

14 February, 2019

Warning: foreach() argument must be of type array|object, bool given in /home/mexiconow/public_html/sites/mexiconow/wp-content/themes/mexiconowwpnew/single.php on line 253

Ontario-based Canadian Solar Inc. today announced its first solar power project of 68 MWp in Mexico started commercial operations last month.

The facility, located in the central state of Aguascalientes, is powered by over 200,000 Canadian Solar high-efficiency poly modules CS6U-P.

The plant will generate 145 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity annually, enough to power 20,690 households and offset 72,700 tons of carbon dioxide emission each year.

In addition to that, a total of 535 jobs were created during the PV plant construction and more than 15 new jobs are expected to be created for operations and maintenance during the upcoming 20 years the plant is in operation. Canadian Solar will provide operations and maintenance services to the plant.

“Achieving commercial operations for the Aguascalientes project is a significant milestone for Canadian Solar. This definitely strengthens our position as a leading solar project developer in Mexico and Latin America,” said in a statement Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar.

The facility was funded through a US$ 69.0 million non-recourse financing package provided by Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior, S.N.C. (Bancomext) and Banco Sabadell. Bancomext is a Mexican Development Bank and Export Credit Agency, whereas Banco Sabadell is a commercial banking group headquartered in Spain.

“Mexico is a very important new market for us where we started solar project development business three years ago. We have a remaining pipeline of 368 MWp of solar projects in Mexico with awarded power purchase agreements (PPAs). Construction of these late-stage projects will soon start and commercial operations will be achieved in 2020,” the official added.

Canadian Solar competed for and won the Aguascalientes project in the first Long Term Auction in Mexico in 2016. According to the contract agreement, the electricity generated will be sold to Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) under a 15-year PPA for energy and capacity, and 20-year for Clean Energy Certificates.

MexicoNow

- Acciona Energía completes in Sonora its largest solar plant built to date

- Iberdrola first solar park in Mexico nearly completed; two more on the way

- French developer Engie to build US$ 111-million photovoltaic park in Sonora

- Mexico’s clean energy tenders to trigger US$ 8.6 billion investments by 2021