Canadian Solar Inc. announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Recurrent Energy, LLC, sold an 80% stake in its 350 MW / 1400 MWh Crimson storage project to Axium Infrastructure (“Axium”). Recurrent Energy will retain the remaining 20% ownership. Construction of the storage project will begin in Q3 2021 and is expected to reach commercial operation by the summer of 2022.
The Crimson storage project is Canadian Solar’s first stand-alone storage project and the largest developed to date. It holds two energy storage contracts with local utilities, namely:
- Phase I: 200 MW / 800 MWh 14 year and 10 month contract with Southern California Edison (“SCE”) under a full tolling agreement, and
- Phase II: 150 MW / 600 MWh 15 year contract with Pacific Gas and Electric (“PG&E”) for Resource Adequacy only; Recurrent and Axium will operate the battery system in the wholesale California wholesale power market
Canadian Solar’s majority-owned CSI Solar subsidiary will provide both EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) and long-term operational services for the Crimson storage project.
“Global efforts towards a clean energy transition are generating a surge in demand for battery storage capacity to support more reliable power grids. At Canadian Solar, we are doing our part by expanding our market leadership position in battery storage and executing on our pipeline,” said Shawn Qu, Chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar. “Through the Crimson storage project, we are collaborating with our partner Axium to help improve California’s grid reliability and safety by providing critically-needed resource adequacy capacity to meet electricity demand in all scenarios. Once it reaches commercial operation, Crimson will be one of the largest battery energy storage projects in the world. We are pleased to work with Axium as we execute and complete the majority sale of the project.”
“The Crimson partnership with Canadian Solar and Recurrent marks Axium’s first investment in battery storage. This important project will support the integration of additional sustainable energy projects to help achieve California’s ambitious energy and climate change goals,” said Thierry Vandal, President of Axium Infrastructure US Inc.
Both contracts are part of reliability procurements directed by the California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”). Located in Riverside County, the Crimson project will support California’s decarbonization and reliability goals with additional non-emitting, clean resource adequacy capacity. The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management issued final approval earlier this year as the Crimson project is sited on public lands in the California desert.
About Canadian Solar Inc.
Canadian Solar was founded in 2001 in Canada and is one of the world’s largest solar technology and renewable energy companies. It is a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic modules, provider of solar energy and battery storage solutions, and developer of utility-scale solar power and battery storage projects with a geographically diversified pipeline in various stages of development. Over the past 20 years, Canadian Solar has successfully delivered over 59 GW of premium-quality, solar photovoltaic modules to customers across the world. Likewise, since entering the project development business in 2010, Canadian Solar has developed, built, and connected over 6.1 GWp in over 20 countries across the world. Currently, the Company has around 400 MWp of projects in operation, nearly 6 GWp of projects under construction or in backlog (late-stage), and an additional 16 GWp of projects in the pipeline (mid- to early- stage). Canadian Solar is one of the most bankable companies in the solar and renewable energy industry, having been publicly listed on the NASDAQ since 2006.
About Recurrent Energy (Canadian Solar Subsidiary)
Recurrent Energy is a leading utility-scale solar and storage project developer, delivering competitive, clean electricity to large energy buyers. Based in the U.S., Recurrent Energy is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian Solar Inc. and functions as Canadian Solar’s U.S. project development arm. Recurrent Energy has approximately 5 GW of solar and storage projects in development in the U.S.
