Canadian Solar Inc., one of the large solar power companies, announced on March 27th that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Canadian Solar Solutions Inc., has completed the sale of Little Creek, a 8.5 megawatt ("MW") AC solar power plant valued at over C$53.0 million to a BluEarth Renewables Inc. subsidiary. This is the first of four planned solar projects being acquired by BluEarth from Canadian Solar, totalling 38.5 MW AC.
Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar, commented, "We are pleased to complete the sale and transfer of the first of four solar projects to BluEarth Renewables. This is an important group of projects as it helps move BluEarth closer to its goal of having C$1 billion of high-quality, long-term contracted renewable energy plants. From Canadian Solar's standpoint, this successful project sale closure allows us to redeploy resources to other projects and to further expand our pipeline, which exceeds 4.5 gigawatts. We continue to focus on higher quality, higher profitability, lower risk projects, which are both attractive to end buyers and give us increased visibility into our business operations beyond 2014."
"The addition of this first solar project to our portfolio is an important milestone for BluEarth. Solar is a great fit with our existing wind and hydro projects across Canada and we are very pleased to be expanding our interests in Ontario," said Kent Brown, President & CEO of BluEarth. "We look forward to delivery of the remaining three projects and a continued relationship with Canadian Solar moving forward."
The Little Creek 8.5 MW AC solar power plant is located in the town of Napanee, Ontario, Canada. The additional three utility-scale solar power plants being purchased by BluEarth, which are planned to reach commercial operation through Q2 2015, are located in Kawartha Lakes, Belleville and Beaverton, Ontario, Canada. Canadian Solar Solutions Inc. will provide turnkey engineering, procurement and construction ("EPC") services for all four projects.