Respective subsidiaries of Canadian Solar and China Huaneng have signed a strategic cooperation agreement that will have them jointly build a 3GW assembly plant for high-efficiency PV modules and a 0.5GW ground-mounted PV power plant in Pingshan, a county in China’s Hebei Province. The deal, which was first reported by local Chinese news outlets, is expected to promote high-quality economic development and establish a new industry ecosystem in the county. The total investment in the two projects comes to RMB 3.5 billion, of which RMB 1.5 billion will be allocated to the construction of the module assembly plant. The remaining RMB 2 billion will be used to set up the PV power plant.
Spanning an area of around 150 mu, the module assembly plant will be built in three phases. Once up and running, the module assembly plant is projected to generate an annual taxable income of more than RMB 200 million. As for the PV power plant, its area size will reach around 15,000 mu. Once up and running, the PV power plant is projected to offset coal consumption by 250,000MT per year, CO2 emissions by 600,000MT per year, and SO2 emissions by 20,000MT per year. Both projects will play an important role in the growth of the local green economy and assist the local government in achieving its targets pertaining to peak emissions and carbon neutrality. Pingshan is under the administration of prefecture-level city Shijiazhuang, so the investment undertaken by Canadian Solar and China Huaneng will contribute to the energy transition efforts taking place in the wider metropolitan area as well as the whole province.
As a state-owned enterprise, China Huaneng has been supporting the green energy policies of the Chinese government by investing in numerous PV and wind power projects. For instance, its 320MW floating PV project in Shandong Province has just come online this January. Huaneng also plans to set up around 2GW of PV generation capacity across Jiangxi Province. On the other hand, Huaneng is also a major player in the nuclear energy sector and especially noted for its development of small modular reactors.