OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ) on Wednesday announced that its unit, Recurrent Energy, LLC, has sold an 80 percent stake in its 350 MW / 1400 MWh Crimson storage project to Axium Infrastructure, an independent portfolio management firm. The remaining 20 percent ownership would be retained by Recurrent Energy.
The Crimson storage project is the first stand-alone and largest to date storage project being developed by the solar technology and renewable energy company. The construction is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2021 and commercial operation is expected by the summer of 2022.
In phase I, the company has a 200 MW / 800 MWh 14 year and 10 months energy storage contract with Southern California Edison under a full tolling agreement. In phase II, it has a 150 MW / 600 MWh 15-year energy storage contract with Pacific Gas and Electric for Resource Adequacy. Both contracts are part of reliability procurements directed by the California Public Utilities Commission.
Recurrent and Axium would be operating the battery system in the wholesale California wholesale power market. Canadian Solar's majority-owned CSI Solar subsidiary would be providing engineering, procurement, construction and long-term operational services for the project.
The project is intended to improve California's grid reliability and safety by providing critically-needed resource adequacy capacity to meet electricity demand in all scenarios. At commercial operation stage, it is expected to be one of the largest battery energy storage projects in the world.
Located in Riverside County, the Crimson project aims to support California's decarbonization and reliability goals with additional non-emitting, clean resource adequacy capacity. The U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management had issued final approval earlier this year for the project which is sited on public lands in the California desert.
Shares of CSIQ are currently trading in pre-market at $37.00, down $0.38 or 1.02 percent from previous close.
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