Canadian Solar – Statistics and Facts

Konrad Wolfenstein

6 years ago

Canadian Solar – Renewable Energy Environmental Technology – Image: Shutter B Photo|Shutterstock.com

Canadian Solar is a solar panel manufacturer headquartered in Guelph, Ontario. Founded by Shawn Qu, who emigrated from China to Canada in 1987, Canadian Solar has operations in 20 countries, including Italy, South Africa, and Hong Kong. Until 2011, Canadian Solar was relatively unknown in Canada, as a large portion of its photovoltaic solar panel manufacturing facilities were located in China. That year, the company opened its first domestic manufacturing facility in Ontario and has since expanded its number of manufacturing sites to 17.

Canadian Solar is a publicly traded company with a pipeline of energy projects worldwide. The United States is its primary market. In fiscal year 2019, Canadian Solar's net revenue fell to US$3.2 billion, while its US-based competitor, FirstSolar, generated US$3.06 billion in net revenue. Approximately ten percent of Canadian Solar's operating expenses were allocated to research and development.

One of the company's first products was a small solar charger for maintaining car batteries during production for Volkswagen Mexico. Canadian Solar became a key supplier for Germany's feed-in tariff program in 2004, specifically for its rooftop solar projects. Since then, the company's focus has primarily been on the production of solar modules, solar power systems, off-grid residential systems, and other specialized photovoltaic (PV) products. In fact, the company is one of the world's largest solar module manufacturers. By 2020, it had shipped over 43 gigawatts of solar modules, according to its own figures. The company's PV modules consist mainly of monocrystalline and polycrystalline cells. Monocrystalline cells are made from silicon blocks with rounded edges, making them one of the most space-saving cell types. Polycrystalline cells were the first type of solar cell used in the photovoltaic industry. For these cells, silicon is melted and cast into a square shape to minimize waste. Canadian Solar currently offers an extended product and performance warranty that guarantees the high power output of its modules.

In 2015, the American solar developer Recurrent Energy was acquired.

At the end of 2015, the production capacity was 4.33 GW. Of this, 2.7 GW was located in the PRC (Changshu/Jiangsu and Luoyang/Henan), 500 MW in Guelph, Ontario and 330 MW in Southeast Asia.