Canadian Solar Gets Fund To Build Solar Projects In Italy

Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ) recently secured a credit fund worth approximately $60 million from Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo (MI:ISP), to build a portfolio of 12 solar photovoltaic (PV) projects across different municipalities of Italy. This portfolio will be among Italy's first unsubsidized utility scale solar projects.

These projects, with a total capacity of 151 megawatt-peaks (MWp), are expected to generate approximately 287 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of solar power per year. Canadian Solar will supply its HiKu CS3W-425 modules, which will be installed in these projects.

Italian Solar Market & Canadian Solar

Italy is expected to be one of the fastest growing solar energy markets in Europe given the size of its economy and abundant solar resources. With the latest financing secured by Canadian Solar, one can expect an expansion in its footprint in Italy’s booming solar PV market.

As the European Union (EU) remains committed to achieve a carbon-neutral economy by 2050, Italy has made good progress on renewable energy over the last decade showing leadership on energy transition within EU.

Per a report by International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), between 2008 and 2018, Italy’s installed renewable energy capacity doubled to around 53 GW.

Notably, Canadian Solar has been active in the Italian subsidy-free market since 2018. Currently, the company has more than 900 MWp of project pipeline under permitting, making it one of the leading players in the country.
Looking ahead, Italy is ontrack to meet its ambitious plans of 30% renewables in gross final energy consumption by 2030, which includes 50 GW of solar PV. Considering the significant position that Candian Solar holds in the Italian solar market, further strengthened by the latest financing, such bullish outlook can be expected to boost profit for solar players.

Global Boom: Canadian Solar & Others

Per a report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), global electricity generation from solar energy is expected to increase to nearly 360 GW per year in 2050 from the current level of 109 GW.

We notice that to reap the benefits of this expanding global solar market, Canadian Solar and other solar players are enhancing their manufacturing capacity, which is evident from better module shipment predictions, for coming days. These, in turn,are expected to boost their profit.

Evidently, at the end of September 2019, Canadian Solar’s utility-scale solar power plants in operation totaled 795.8 MWp, with an estimated resale value of $900 billion. Moreover, the company’s late-stage, utility-scale solar pipelines, including the ones under construction, increased to 3.4 GWp.

In 2019, JinkoSolar (NYSE:JKS) reported record high solar module shipment of14.3 GW. For 2020, it projects total solar module shipments of 18-20 GW, indicating an improvement of approximately 35%.

Given the growing demand for solar modules, First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) expects to increase its nameplate Series 6 manufacturing capacity to 6 GW by 2020 and 8 GW by year-end 2021.

SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) won awards worth more than $500 million in 2019 and acquired bookings worth 26 megawatts in the fourth quarter. Such contract wins are indicative of future revenue growth prospects of the company.

Price Performance

In a year's time, shares of Canadian Solar have plunged 39.1% compared with the industry’s 22% decline.

Zacks Rank

Canadian Solar currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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