CSI Solar, a wholly-owned subsidiary of solar module maker Canadian Solar, has entered a multi-year investment agreement with the municipal government of Yangzhou City in Jiangsu Province of China for capacity additions across the company’s solar and battery storage supply chain.

Through the agreement, CSI Solar aims to add vertically integrated high-efficiency wafer, cell, and module capacity, along with battery system manufacturing capacity in the clean energy manufacturing industrial park of Yangzhou.

The project will be executed in three phases. In the first phase, the company will set up of 14 GW of wafer and cell capacity. Production is scheduled to commence during the second half of the financial year 2023.

The company said that it is currently planning the implementation of the other two phases.

Canadian Solar has enhanced the capacities to be added in 2023 to 20 GW of ingot, 35 GW of wafer, and 50 GW of cells and modules.

Chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar Shawn Qu said, “We are pleased to expand our manufacturing base in the latest high-efficiency solar and battery storage products to better support the strong demand needs of our customers. Our capacity additions will further enhance our profitability in an environment of rapidly declining upstream raw material costs, and we are dynamically adjusting our capacity plans to account for a market backdrop with pockets of large supply as well as pockets of tight supply relative to demand. Importantly, our business plans are designed to strengthen our long-term leadership position and we expect these additions to do just that.”

Canadian Solar currently has approximately 500 MW of projects in operation while 6 GW of projects are under construction or in backlog (late-stage), and an additional 19 GW of projects are in the advanced and early-stage pipeline.

In December 2022, CSI Solar inked a 256 MW solar module contract with SOLA Group, an independent power producer in Cape Town, to supply modules to two utility-scale solar power projects in South Africa with 126 MW and 130 MW capacity.

The company posted a year-over-year increase of 123% in its net income for the third quarter of 2022 at $78.5 million. The growth was primarily driven by strong demand, lower production costs, and currency benefits from a strong U.S. dollar.