Canadian solar company to expand glass manufacturing capacity

Patterned solar PV glass provider Canadian Premium Sand (CPS) has signed offtake agreements with major panel manufacturers Qcells, Meyer Burger and Heliene.

The company will launch an 800 tonnes a day solar glass facility, expanding beyond its original plans to add 550 tonne a day.

The company's EPC consortium, which includes PCL Constructors Canada and Henry F. Teichmann, has finalised pre-construction designs for the facility, which is capable of supplying solar glass to approximately 6.0GW a year of solar panel manufacturing capacity in North America.

The facility will be capable of producing a range of patterned solar glass specifications, including standard 3.2mm thick front-glass for the residential and commercial rooftop market as well as 2.0mm thick glass required for the bifacial utility market.

The company has entered into a preliminary construction agreement for the production site that places a maximum cost of $880 million.

The offtake agreements combine for a minimum of 62% of the company’s planned output capacity, with the option to expand to about 77% of planned output capacity.

Glenn Leroux, president and chief executive officer, Canadian Premium Sand, said: “With strong revenue visibility through binding commercial off-take agreements and a high degree of certainty with capital costs and operational performance through our EPC agreement we are confident in our ability to commercialize this high return project, supporting the global energy transition.”

On May 3, 2023, the province of Manitoba issued the company an Environmental Act license to construct and operate its proposed patterned solar glass manufacturing facility on the site secured in Selkirk, Manitoba.

The new facility being built by CPS uses the high-purity, low-iron silica sand from its wholly owned Wanipigow quarry leases.

CPS said it intends to power the facility with renewable energy, which reduces the carbon footprint of producing the glass.

The company also said it plans to use recycled water in the manufacturing process along with waste heat recovery.