Recurrent Energy is developing Liberty Solar, located in the MISO South region of Texas, and anticipates the project to start producing renewable electricity by 2024
GUELPH, ON and HOUSTON, May 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Recurrent Energy, LLC ("Recurrent"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian Solar Inc. ("Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ: CSIQ), today announced that it has signed an aggregated virtual power purchase agreement with EMD Electronics, Biogen Inc., Wayfair Inc., Autodesk, Inc. and a large healthcare company for 100% of the production capacity of the Liberty Solar project. Recurrent Energy is currently developing the 100 MWac solar project in Liberty County, Texas, around 50 miles from Houston. The project is expected to be operational in 2024.
Liberty Solar will expand solar energy capacity in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) region, which includes most of Liberty County where Liberty Solar is located. Solar energy currently makes up only 1% of the resource mix in MISO. Liberty Solar will produce enough energy to power approximately 15,000 homes annually.
Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar said, "Recurrent Energy is pleased to advance one of the largest peer-buyer organized corporate virtual power purchase agreements with this consortium of customers. We appreciate Sustainability Roundtable Inc. for bringing these five companies together to help enable Recurrent Energy's 100 MWac Liberty Solar project with 16-year contracts. This agreement will serve as a model for corporate procurement, further expanding the number of companies with robust credit ratings to make more renewable energy projects possible."
EMD Electronics, the U.S. and Canada electronics business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, will purchase renewable energy generated by a 40 MW portion of Liberty Solar, serving as the anchor buyer of the project. Once operational, Liberty Solar will help achieve Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany's goal to match 80% of the globally purchased electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and become climate neutral by 2040.
Kai Beckmann, Member of the Executive Board of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and CEO Electronics, said, "We have set ambitious goals and want to do our part to enable more sustainable supply chains worldwide. In addition to matching our electricity consumption with renewable energy, our research and development work can support our customers on their path to greater sustainability. With these milestones, we are able to support the fast-growing semiconductor industry with sustainable business practices. This new solar project in Texas is just one example of our efforts. We are continuing to actively pursue renewable energy, and not only in the United States."
Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB), a leading global biotechnology company, will purchase renewable energy generated by a 20 MW portion of Liberty Solar as part of its commitment to 100% renewable electricity, which Biogen has maintained since 2014. In 2020, Biogen announced targets for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and its long-term vision by addressing fossil fuel emissions in its operations.
Wayfair Inc. (NYSE: W), one of the world's largest destinations for the home, will purchase renewable energy generated by a 15 MW portion of Liberty Solar. Once the project is online, Wayfair's portion is expected to produce 37,000 MWh, equivalent to approximately 64% of the company's 2022 electricity demand in North America.
Maggie Finnegan, Head of Product Sustainability & Climate for Wayfair, said, "Following our public commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we are pleased to follow up with our first virtual power purchase agreement. This solar development will support our long-term goal to reduce emissions across our value chain. Our portion of this project is expected to produce enough renewable electricity to power more than 3,500 average U.S. homes per year."
Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), a global leader in design and make technology, will purchase renewable energy generated by a 10 MW portion of Liberty Solar to advance a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable world.
Debbie Clifford, Autodesk's Chief Financial Officer, said, "Autodesk is committed to advancing a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable world, and we're proud to join these companies in catalyzing the development of a new solar energy plant through our first virtual power purchase agreement."
A large healthcare company will purchase renewable energy generated from the remaining 15 MW portion of Liberty Solar. The five companies were organized and supported by Sustainability Roundtable Inc.'s Net Zero Consortium for Buyers, the leading platform for corporate aggregated procurement of large-scale renewable energy in the U.S. and Europe.
About Canadian Solar Inc.
Canadian Solar was founded in 2001 in Canada and is one of the world's largest solar technology and renewable energy companies. It is a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic modules, provider of solar energy and battery storage solutions, and developer of utility-scale solar power and battery storage projects with a geographically diversified pipeline in various stages of development. Over the past 22 years, Canadian Solar has successfully delivered around 88 GW of premium-quality, solar photovoltaic modules to customers across the world. Likewise, since entering the project development business in 2010, Canadian Solar has developed, built and connected around 8.8 GWp in over 20 countries across the world. Currently, the Company has approximately 574 MWp of projects in operation, 6.7 GWp of projects under construction or in backlog (late-stage), and an additional 18 GWp of projects in advanced and early-stage pipeline. Canadian Solar is one of the most bankable companies in the solar and renewable energy industry, having been publicly listed on the 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, regulatory and economic conditions and the state of the solar and battery storage market and industry; geopolitical tensions and conflicts, including impasses, sanctions and export controls; volatility, uncertainty, delays and disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic; supply chain disruptions; 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., China, Brazil and Europe; changes in effective tax rates; changes in customer order patterns; changes in product mix; changes in corporate responsibility, especially environmental, social and governance ("ESG") requirements; capacity utilization; level of competition; pricing pressure and declines in or failure to timely adjust 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 that customers demand; shortage in supply of materials or capacity requirements; availability of financing; exchange and inflation rate fluctuations; uncertainties related to the CSI Solar carve-out listing; litigation and other risks as described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 20-F filed on April 18, 2023. 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.
CANADIAN SOLAR INC. INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACTS
Isabel Zhang
Investor Relations
Canadian Solar Inc.
investor@canadiansolar.com
David Pasquale
Global IR Partners
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csiq@globalirpartners.com
RECURRENT ENERGY MEDIA INQUIRIES
Ally Copple
Innovant Public Relations
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Ally@InnovantPR.com
