Canadian Solar Announces Partnership with IKEA Australia to Build 3.6MW Solar Systems

GUELPH, Ontario, May 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/-- Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ), one of the world's largest solar power companies, today announced a partnership with IKEA Australia, a globally celebrated leader of the retail industry. 

The 3.6MW project will span across seven IKEA sites located in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, and will generate enough clean energy to offset approximately 4,000 tonnes of CO2 annually. This is the company's largest commercial PV project roll-out to date globally and emphasizes our unique position to provide our customers with total turn-key solar solutions that reduce the complexities and costs of solar system installation.

Canadian Solar is a leader in PV product quality and durability, providing the industry's highest power outputs per panel. Canadian Solar modules ranked the highest in the PTC Rating (PVUSA Test Condition), which represents real world conditions and referenced by the California Energy Commission, and in the Desert Knowledge Australia - Solar Centre (DKA-SC) demonstration facility, where our CS6P-250P (poly) PV panels outperform many other leading solar companies by producing up to 3 percent more electricity.

Canadian Solar's extensive experience with large-scale rooftop installations across the globe, our capabilities in obtaining the required permits, providing optimized and cost-effective engineering, procurement and construction, and operation & maintenance services, also contributed to IKEA's decision in choosing their PV partner.

IKEA Australia Sustainability Manager Richard Wilson, commented, "We have a long-term approach to sustainability, globally our ambition is to switch to renewable energy to become energy independent by 2020, and we're well on the way. For an installation of this size, installing solar systems on to the roofs of our stores and warehouses here in Australia is a considerable undertaking and each of our sites' has had its challenges. It's important to us and our business to ensure we have efficient, reliable high quality product together with a competitive offer, expert knowledge and experience."

Canadian Solar' professional engineering design was critical to the development of the project systems, which feature state-of-the-art products, such as our Quartech-Next Generation PV panels, micro-inverters, innovative roof-top ballast mounting structure, and smart relay components. 

"The IKEA project involved hefty undertakings of grid-connection negotiation. Our organization prides itself in not only producing the world's best PV products but also a dynamic expertise-driven projects team. Fully equipped with advanced understanding of Australian grid codes and backed by years of experience, our local team was able to effectively execute, despite the complexity of the projects. As such, globally celebrated companies like IKEA, continue to choose Canadian Solar because of our expertise, bankability, reliability and commitment to excellence," said Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar Inc.

About Canadian Solar Inc.

Founded in 2001 in Canada, Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ) is one of the world's largest and foremost solar power companies. As a leading vertically integrated provider of solar modules, specialized solar products and solar power plants with operations in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and Asia, Canadian Solar has delivered more than 6GW of premium quality solar modules to customers in over 70 countries. Canadian Solar is committed to improve the environment and dedicated to provide advanced solar energy products, solutions and services to enable sustainable development around the world. For more information, please visit www.canadiansolar.com.

About IKEA

The IKEA vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people. Our business idea supports this vision by offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. IKEA (www.ikea.com) incorporates sustainability into day-to-day business and supports initiatives that benefit children and the environment. Customers around the world have embraced the IKEA concept since its inception over 50 years ago. IKEA is the world's largest home furnishings retailer with 357 stores in 44 countries, employing more than 151,000 co-workers. In 2013, a total of 775 million people visited IKEA stores globally, and in 2013 the turnover for all IKEA stores was 29.2 billion Euros (approx. A$42.8 billion).

Safe Harbor/Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. These statements are made under the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by such terms as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "estimates," the negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include the risks regarding general business and economic conditions and the state of the solar industry; governmental support for the deployment of solar power; future available supplies of high-purity silicon; demand for solar products by consumers and inventory levels of such products in the supply chain; changes in demand from significant customers; changes in demand in our project markets, including the Province of Ontario in Canada, Japan, China and the U.S.; changes in customer order patterns; capacity utilization; level of competition; pricing pressure and declines in average selling prices; ability to successfully deliver solar systems that meet customer requirements; continued success in technological innovations and delivery of products with the features customers demand; delays in the utility-scale project approval process; delays in utility-scale project construction; shortage in supply of materials or capacity requirements; solar equipment failure; availability of financing; exchange rate fluctuations; litigation and other risks as described in the Company's SEC filings, including its annual report on Form 20-F filed on April 28, 2014. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance, or achievements. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All information provided in this press release is as of today's date, unless otherwise stated, and Canadian Solar undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

SOURCE Canadian Solar Inc.