The Slate Project, a 300MW solar and 140.25-MW/561-MWh storage project located in Kings County, California, and has begun construction. System Solutions and Energy Storage (SSES), Canadian Solar’s majority-owned energy storage subsidiary will provide the battery integration solution for the project. Additionally, PNC Bank is providing a tax equity commitment to the project. The project has signed PPAs with five different off-takers, four of which are solar and energy storage, and one that is solar-only. The Slate project will generate enough low-cost, clean energy to power approximately 126,000 California homes. The power plant will use approximately 962,000 of Canadian Solar’s high-efficiency bifacial BiKu modules across approximately 2,400 acres in Kings County, California.
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The project is expected to employ 405 workers when construction is at its peak, with at least 50% of those construction jobs expected to be filled by local skilled tradesmen from the Kings County area. Along with indirect economic benefits that accompany solar project development, such as increased local spending in the service and construction industries, the Slate project will also have a positive economic impact on the local community by providing significant tax revenues for Kings County.
Dr. Shawn Qu, chairman, and CEO of Canadian Solar stated, “The Slate project is Recurrent Energy’s largest solar-plus-storage project and represents continued investment in a community where we have done business for nearly a decade. Given the huge market opportunity presented by battery storage, both standalone as well as paired with solar, we have focused significant resources in developing our own technological, servicing, and financing solutions over the past few years. We are now starting to see our efforts come to fruition and are solidly positioning Canadian Solar as a market leader in this space. This transaction demonstrates that our SSES team is now a top bankable battery storage solutions provider with deep technical know-how in solar and battery integration technology. Likewise, the Recurrent Energy team has done an excellent job in growing our storage pipeline in the U.S. which is currently over 4 GWh.”
