Canadian Solar Inc.
(
CSIQ
) announced that its 148 MW solar park PV project in southern
Brandenburg, Germany was conferred the Solar Project of the Year
Award for 2012 by POWER-GEN International. The award was
announced at POWER-GEN International's Projects of the Year
awards gala in Orlando.
The solar complex in Brandenburg beat 43 other entrants from
around the world to take top honors in the Best Solar Project
category. Finalists were chosen by a team of eight editors from
Power Engineering and Renewable Energy World.
The solar complex in southern Brandenburg, one of the world's
largest PV projects covering 352 hectares (870 acres), was
constructed on a former lignite mining strip in the East German
community of Meuro, near Senftenberg. Canadian Solar provided
636,000 CS6P-P modules, powering nearly 90%, 148 MW, of the
project's 166 MW total output.
By utilizing a former surface mine for the installation, the
PV solar project converted a brownfield into an energy-producing
solar farm. This project created hundreds of local construction
and operation jobs and generated enough clean, renewable solar
energy to power 67,500 households in the region.
In recent times, Canadian Solar booked positive growth in
Europe, most notably in Germany, offsetting the weakness in the
U.S. market. However, higher volumes were more than offset
by persistently falling average selling prices. Average selling
prices continued to decline as the Euro weakened and Germany
transformed into a new, lower feed-in-tariff regime.
Looking forward, the company is actively branching out to
capture new opportunities in key solar markets worldwide.
The company continues to see attractive opportunities for growth
in China, Japan and India, as well as other emerging markets in
Asia, Africa and Latin America. Moreover, its specialization at
the downstream total solutions business makes it a higher margin
business.
However, in the near term, the fortunes of Canadian Solar
could be impacted by the industry-wide supply glut, leading to
sharply falling average selling prices, tepid module demand in
Europe and rising competition in the market. Given the
industry-wide high inventory level, we do not foresee any
short-term margin improvement of the company.
Canadian Solar Inc. is one of the world's largest solar
companies. As a leading vertically integrated provider of ingots,
wafers, solar cells, solar modules and other solar applications,
the company designs, manufactures and delivers solar products and
solar system solutions for on-grid and off-grid use to customers
worldwide.
With operations in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia,
Canadian Solar provides premium quality, cost-effective and
environmentally friendly solar solutions to support global,
sustainable development. Over the longer run, we thus maintain
our Neutral recommendation on the stock. The company holds a
Zacks Rank #3, which translates into a short-term Hold rating,
and correlates with our long-term recommendation. One of the
peers of the company is
SunPower Corporation
(
SPWR
).
CANADIAN SOLAR (CSIQ): Free Stock Analysis
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