Canadian Solar is reportedly developing a solar panel manufacturing facility in Brazil, with an estimated investment of $23m.
Located in Sorocaba, in the state of Sao Paulo, the facility will have production capacity of about 350MW of panels per year. The factory is scheduled to enter service in September 2016.
The new solar panel manufacturing facility is expected secure financing from Brazil’s development bank Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), which offers cheap loans solar project that source locally manufactured components.
Bloomberg cited three people familiar with the matter as saying that the facility will initially supply panels to the Brazilian solar projects, which are being developed by Canadian Solar.
Significantly, the company will supply about 100MW of components to other developers each year.
Canadian Solar is also considering doubling the production capacity of the factory to meet the solar power demand while continuing to bid in Brazil’s future auctions to develop solar projects.
Brazil plans to launch two additional licensing rounds in July and October 2016, reported Reuters.
The new factory is expected to contribute to the country’s effort to have 3.5GW of installed solar generation capacity by 2023.
Brazil earlier unveiled plans to ban imports of solar-cell by the end of the decade in a bid to encourage domestic manufacturing of solar components.
Canadian Solar has been awarded contracts earlier to sell 400MW of solar power in the county.
Image: Brazil plans to have 3.5GW of installed solar generation capacity by 2023. Photo: courtesy maya picture/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net.