Canadian Solar to build PV cell plant in China

Canadian Solar Inc. (Toronto, Ontario) has signed an agreement with Suzhou New District Economic Development Group Corporation and Suzhou Science and Technology City Development Co., Ltd. under which the parties will form a joint venture to build and operate a 600 MW PV cell production plant in Suzhou, China. The new facility will be located approximately eight kilometers from Canadian Solar’s existing solar cell production plant in Suzhou and will produce the company’s ELPS and ESE high-efficiency solar cells. Canadian Solar will contribute 61% of the registered equity in the joint venture. The company said that the new joint venture will allow it to reach a total PV-cell production capacity of approximately 2 GW by the first quarter of 2012.