Canadian Solar Inc. announced the signing of a power purchase agreement (PPA) with BTG Pactual and that it was awarded with two projects in a private auction by Furnas Centrais Elétricas for a total of 862 MW in solar power projects in Brazil.
For the 12-year PPA with BTG, Canadian Solar will supply solar energy from a 170 MW cluster of projects located in the State of Minas Gerais. The projects will start construction in 2021 and are expected to achieve commercial operation by the end of 2022. BTG is one of the main investment banks in Latin America and runs one of the largest energy trading businesses in Brazil.
Furnas will purchase solar energy from two Canadian Solar projects through a 15-year PPA. Canadian Solar will develop and build both Furnas projects totaling 692 MW. One of them, will be located in the State of Ceará and will have a capacity of 260 MW.
The second project is located in the State of Piuaí and will have a capacity of 432 MW. Both projects will start construction in 2022 and are expected to reach commercial operation by the end of 2023. Furnas is a majority-controlled subsidiary of utility Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras S.A. (Eletrobras). Furnas’ business is mainly in energy generation, transmission and sales. It operates in 16 Brazilian states and is the owner of 21 hydro plants, two thermal plants, one wind farm and 30,000 kilometers of transmission lines.
All projects will use Canadian Solar’s latest, high power series 7 bifacial modules of up to 665 W. According to Shawn Qu, Chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar, the company’s backlog of solar projects in Brazil with PPAs (or equivalent) reached almost 2.2 GW.