Canadian Solar Production Facility In Suzhou, China Catches On Fire (& Canadian Solar Gets 30 MW Deal At 5 Utility-Scale Solar Power Plants In NC)
Canadian Solar’s production facility in Suzhou, China experienced a fire on February 17th, according to reports from Chinese media. The fire, which is said to have started at a solar cell manufacturing line, reportedly resulted in no employee injuries and only minimal impacts on infrastructure.
While there have yet to be any official announcements made about it, ROTH Capital financial analyst Philip Shen reportedly told clients (after speaking with Canadian Solar IR representatives) that the fire was relatively small, and occurred in the wafer chemical etch area for texturing the wafers before cell processing.
PV-Tech provides more:
According to the investor note (from Shen) production was restarted at workshops named 4 and 5 on the evening of February 20, while production restart at workshop 2 would be back at full capacity in the first week of March. However, where the fire occurred, that workshop area would to be back at 80% capacity within the next two months.
Any solar cell shortfalls would be covered by purchasing cells from other suppliers and would have very minimal impact on module shipments in the first quarter of 2014, according to the ROTH Capital report.
In related news, Canadian Solar recently announced a new deal to supply 18 megawatts worth of solar panels to Hitachi Ltd for a project being built in Northeast Japan. Also, a new deal to supply 30 megawatts worth of solar panels to Strata Solar for five new projects being constructed in North Carolina was just announced.
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Image Credit: solar panels via Shutterstock
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