Canadian Solar unit to add 14 GW of wafer, cell capacity

January 31 (Renewables Now) - Canadian Solar Inc (NASDAQ:CSIQ) on Monday said its majority-owned subsidiary CSI Solar Co Ltd will add manufacturing capacity in Jiangsu Province, China with a plan to produce 14 GW of wafers and cells in the initial phase.

CSI Solar has signed a multi-year investment agreement with the municipal government of Yangzhou City for the capacity expansion project, which will take place at Yangzhou's clean energy manufacturing industrial park in three phases.

The plans include adding vertically integrated wafer, cell and module capacity, as well as battery system manufacturing capacity. The first phase of 14 GW of wafer and cell capacity is expected to start production in the second half of 2023, while the subsequent two are subject to change based market conditions and the company's assessments, according to the announcement.

Canadian Solar chairman and chief executive Shawn Qu said the expansion will support the strong demand needs of the company’s customers. “Our capacity additions will further enhance our profitability in an environment of rapidly declining upstream raw material costs, and we are dynamically adjusting our capacity plans to account for a market backdrop with pockets of large supply as well as pockets of tight supply relative to demand,” added Shawn Qu.

Canadian Solar also updated its guidance for capacities at the end of 2023 to 20 GW of ingot, 35 GW of wafer, and 50 GW of cell and modules.

In the company’s earnings report in November, CSI Solar's solar capacity expansion targets called for 25 GW of ingot, 25 GW of wafer, 35 GW of cells and 50 GW of modules in December 2023. At end-September 2022, the figures stood at 14.4 GW, 15.3 GW, 17.3 GW and 31.3 GW, respectively.

According to BloombergNEF's report on energy transition investment last week, investment in manufacturing capacity for clean energy technologies remains concentrated in China, with the country accounting for 91% of the USD 78.7 billion (EUR 72.2bn) spent globally in 2022 on factories for technologies such as batteries and solar.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.917)