GUELPH, Ontario – Canadian Solar Inc. announced today that it has secured a €50 million bilateral corporate facility with Banco Santander, S.A. (“Santander”). The facility will support growth at Canadian Solar‘s Global Energy business as it executes and expands on its project development pipeline in the Europe, Middle East and Africa, or EMEA region, and further diversifies the Company’s sources of financing.
This is the second facility between Canadian Solar’s European subsidiary and Santander over the past year which demonstrates Santander’s trust on the Company’s regional strategy and ability to execute on its business plan. It also demonstrates Canadian Solar’s strong bankability in the global solar market, built on its 20-year track record of strong product performance and experience in solar project development.
The new facility is composed of a term loan and a revolving credit facility of equal amounts. This structure provides Canadian Solar a highly flexible financial instrument to execute growth plans as well as manage short term cash needs at favorable terms.
“The EMEA region is going through a significant acceleration in deployment of solar PV and it is one of the key pillars of growth of our Global Energy business. We will continue to execute on our project development business, while expanding our presence in areas such as operations and maintenance, asset management, battery storage and energy trading. Partnering with Santander, we will to continue our efforts in building a sustainable business model and contributing to the global response to climate change,” said Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar.
He added, “We are well positioned to expand our role as a full global solar operator, adding and capturing value throughout the full project lifecycle. We hope to expand our partnership with Santander as we further strengthen our leadership position in the global renewable energy market, contributing to advance the Paris Agreement goals for a drastic reduction of carbon emissions by 2030.”
As of the first quarter of 2021, Canadian Solar has a total global solar PV project pipeline of 21 GWp, of which nearly 4 GWp is in EMEA, specifically in Italy, Spain, the U.K., France, Poland, Netherlands, Israel and South Africa. The Company has offices fully dedicated to project development in Madrid, Milan, London and Warsaw. The Company is also strategically positioning itself as one of the main energy storage players in the world, with a global pipeline of nearly 17 GWh, of which more that 1 GWh of storage projects are in EMEA.
