Canadian Solar Inc., (the “Company”, or “Canadian Solar”) (NASDAQ:CSIQ), one of the world’s largest solar power companies, and EDF Renewables, a global market leader in renewable energy, today announced that their jointly-owned 191.5 MWp Pirapora I solar power project was named by Infrastructure Journal Global (IJGlobal) as the Latin America Multisourced Deal of the Year at the IJGlobal Awards on\u00a0March 15. The project is located in the Minas Gerais State of Brazil with 80% ownership by EDF Renewables and 20% by\u00a0Canadian Solar.<\/p>\n
The IJGlobal Awards are selected annually by an expert panel of judges and are a celebration of the best in class deals in energy and infrastructure in each region. Other award winners this year include\u00a0JP Morgan and Asian Development Bank.<\/p>\n
Pirapora I is the first-ever solar power generation plant financed by\u00a0Brazilian Development Bank\u00a0(BNDES), with funding entirely from TJLP (Brazilian Long Term Interest Rate). As one of the world’s largest development banks, BNDES allocates the best terms of credit to renewable energy projects to induce economic development in projects with positive externalities, including environmental and social impact. This project was successfully commissioned in\u00a0November 2017.<\/p>\n
The funding commitment for Pirapora I also includes a short-term construction bridge loan in Brazilian Reais provided by IDB Invest, the private sector institution of the\u00a0Inter-American Development Bank Group\u00a0(IDB). The IDB is the largest multilateral financing institution for development projects in\u00a0Latin America\u00a0and the\u00a0Caribbean. Banco Ita\u00fa\u00a0BBA S.A., Banco Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 G\u00e9n\u00e9rale Brasil S.A.\u00a0and\u00a0Banco ABC Brasil S.A.\u00a0also provided construction financing as underwriters of a Brazilian Reais denominated unsecured debenture.<\/p>\n
“We are delighted that Pirapora I is being recognized with this award, which acknowledges our contribution along with EDF Renewables towards developing one of\u00a0Brazil’s\u00a0largest solar power plants. Pirapora I is among the first solar projects to close project finance under the Brazil Reserve Energy Auctions scheme,” commented Dr.\u00a0Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of\u00a0Canadian Solar. “Latin America\u00a0is an important market for us and we look forward to working with our partners to increase solar power investments in the region.”<\/p>\n
Bruno Fyot, COO of\u00a0EDF Energies Nouvelles’ Group, added: “This award underlines the excellence of our Pirapora solar project and constitutes further evidence of our deep interest in realizing renewable energy large-scale projects comprising innovation, local development and socio-environmental contents.”<\/p>\n