CANADIAN SOLAR AND EDF RENEWABLES WIN IJGLOBAL LATIN AMERICA MULTISOURCED DEAL OF THE YEAR AWARD FOR PIRAPORA I SOLAR PROJECT
GUELPH, Ontario: Canadian Solar Inc., (the “Company”, or “Canadian Solar”) (NASDAQ:CSIQ), one of the world’s largest solar power companies, and EDF Renewables, a global market leader in renewable energy, today announced that their jointly-owned 191.5 MWp Pirapora I solar power project was named by Infrastructure Journal Global (IJGlobal) as the Latin America Multisourced Deal of the Year at the IJGlobal Awards on March 15. The project is located in the Minas Gerais State of Brazil with 80% ownership by EDF Renewables and 20% by Canadian Solar.
The IJGlobal Awards are selected annually by an expert panel of judges and are a celebration of the best in class deals in energy and infrastructure in each region. Other award winners this year include JP Morgan and Asian Development Bank.
Pirapora I is the first-ever solar power generation plant financed by Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), with funding entirely from TJLP (Brazilian Long Term Interest Rate). As one of the world’s largest development banks, BNDES allocates the best terms of credit to renewable energy projects to induce economic development in projects with positive externalities, including environmental and social impact. This project was successfully commissioned in November 2017.
The funding commitment for Pirapora I also includes a short-term construction bridge loan in Brazilian Reais provided by IDB Invest, the private sector institution of the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB). The IDB is the largest multilateral financing institution for development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Banco Itaú BBA S.A., Banco Société Générale Brasil S.A. and Banco ABC Brasil S.A. also provided construction financing as underwriters of a Brazilian Reais denominated unsecured debenture.
“We are delighted that Pirapora I is being recognized with this award, which acknowledges our contribution along with EDF Renewables towards developing one of Brazil’s largest solar power plants. Pirapora I is among the first solar projects to close project finance under the Brazil Reserve Energy Auctions scheme,” commented Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar. “Latin America is an important market for us and we look forward to working with our partners to increase solar power investments in the region.”
Bruno Fyot, COO of EDF Energies Nouvelles’ Group, added: “This award underlines the excellence of our Pirapora solar project and constitutes further evidence of our deep interest in realizing renewable energy large-scale projects comprising innovation, local development and socio-environmental contents.”
About Canadian Solar Inc.
Founded in 2001 in Canada, Canadian Solar is one of the world’s largest and foremost solar power companies. As a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic modules and provider of solar energy solutions, Canadian Solar also has a geographically diversified pipeline of utility-scale power projects in various stages of development. In the past 17 years, Canadian Solar has successfully delivered over 26 GW of premium quality modules to over 100 countries around the world. Furthermore, 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; 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 27, 2017. 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.
About EDF Energies Nouvelles group / EDF Renewables, in Brazil
EDF Energies Nouvelles group is a market leader in renewable energy electricity, with a portfolio of more than 12 GW gross installed capacity focused for the most part on wind (onshore and offshore) and solar photovoltaic energy. Mostly operating in Europe and North America, EDF Energies Nouvelles continues its development by taking strong positions in promising emerging areas such as Brazil, China, India, or South Africa, and North Africa and Gulf Cooperation Council regions. The Company is also present in other segments of the renewable energy market: marine energy, distributed energies and energy storage. EDF Energies Nouvelles manages renewable energy projects’ development and construction as well as operations and maintenance for its own account and for third parties. The majority of its international subsidiaries is branded EDF Renewables. EDF Energies Nouvelles is a subsidiary of the EDF Group dedicated to renewable energy.
EDF Renewables’ portfolio in Brazil consists of 700 MW of wind and solar projects under development and operating.
Source: Canadian Solar Inc.
