Canadian Solar has secured the rights to develop two photovoltaic projects in Brazil with a combined capacity of over 190MW.
The company will develop and build the 152.4MW Gameleira project in the state of Ceara and the 38.1MW Luiz Gonzaga plant located in Pernambuco.
Construction of Gameleira is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2021, while work on Luiz Gonzaga is expected to start in the first quarter of 2022.
Both projects will reach commercial operation before January 2023, two years earlier than the date required by the government.
Once in operation, the two solar plants will generate approximately 433 gigawatt hours of electricity a year.
A pool of distribution companies will buy 30% of the electricity generated by the plants under two 20-year power purchase agreements (PPAs).
The rest of the electricity will be purchased under long-term private PPAs which are under negotiation, Canadian Solar said.
The projects were awarded in an auction in October, where the Brazilian government allocated a total of 2979MW of generation capacity, of which 530MW was solar.
Canadian Solar chief executive Shawn Qu said: “We are proud to be the only company that has been successful in winning projects in all seven federal energy auctions held to date in Brazil. “
“This auction win further strengthens our leading position in the Brazilian solar market where we have been awarded accumulatively around 1.6GW of PPAs.”