This EPC agreement is in addition to two previous EPC agreements signed by both companies in December 2010.

SkyPower has closed financing with Deutsche Bank on these projects late 2010. The previous 18.5Mw EPC agreement consists of a 10.5Mw solar park in Napanee, home to First Light I, (SkyPower's first solar project and Canada's first fully operational solar park).

The second project is an 8.5Mw solar park located on Thunder Bay International Airport Authority land with the third being the 10.5Mw project in Thunder Bay on Fort William First Nation land.

Once fully operational, the combined total for these projects is approximately 30Mw of nameplate capacity and are expected to create hundreds of new clean energy jobs to further accelerate both the Canadian Solar EPC turn-key business and the successful completion of these SkyPower solar parks in Ontario.

The construction of all three projects is expected to reach completion by third quarter 2011. Together, they are expected to generate approximately 28 million KWh in their first full year of operation and almost 600 million kWh total over the next 20 years. This is equivalent to producing enough electricity to power almost 50,000 homes and a CO2 offset of removing almost 90,000 cars off the road over the initial 20 years of the project.

Kerry Adler, president and CEO of SkyPower, said: “As Canada's largest developer and owner of solar projects, we are pleased to expand our relationship with Canadian Solar and once again select them to build this important project.

“We look forward to the completion of these three solar projects as we continue to build out our extensive solar pipeline across the Province, which will to bring an abundance of economic, environmental and health benefits to the communities where we are actively building.”

Will the move commercially benefit Canadian Solar?

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