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Canadian Solar Inks JV Deal With ET Energy for Solar Plants

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Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ - Free Report) recently announced that it has entered into a joint venture with ET Energy for providing Engineering, Procurement and Construction (“EPC”) services to two solar power projects with total capacity of 132 mega-watt peak (MWp) in South Africa. The EPC projects are developed for BioTherm Energy, an independent African power producer.

Details of the Project

The two projects, namely Aggeneys with a capacity of 46 MWp and Konkoonsies-II with 86 MWp capacity, are located in northwest South Africa with a total area of 387 hectares.

Both solar projects are expected to be grid-connected by the end of 2019 and early 2020, respectively. The construction of the project is planned to start this September. The project will have more than 400,000 Canadian Solar's 1500V high voltage modules and CS6U-P, to be installed on single-axis solar tracking systems. The two solar projects will consist of a total of 34 central inverters.

These solar plants are the company’s first large-scale applications products in South Africa's high voltage market. Also, the company anticipates to explore more opportunities in the renewable energy market in South Africa.

International Portfolio: An Upside

The company has a strong pipeline of projects and carries out various acquisitions and strategies to further consolidate its position. Countries in the Asia-Pacific region like Japan, China and India, are expected to be the principal demand drivers of solar modules in the coming years. Canadian Solar flaunts a significant presence across Japan, China, India and Brazil. Moreover, it continues to expand operations in this growing solar energy market.

Canadian Solar’s expansion globally is likely to boost the company’s revenue generation capability. Canadian Solar witnessed more than 50% top-line improvement in the first half of 2018 year over year.

In addition to other international markets, South Africa could be another potential hub for Canadian Solar. The country targets to add nearly 18 GW of PV Plants during the 2021-50 time period and Canadian Solar with high-quality solar panels and expertise could be a candidate to gain from huge demand potential from the South African market.

Price Movement

In the past month, shares of Canadian Solar have outperformed the Zacks Solar industry. The stock has gained 9.8% versus the industry’s decline of 0.3%.



Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Canadian Solar currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks from the Zack Oil-Energy Sector are Ecopetrol S.A. (EC - Free Report) , sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and Galp Energia SGPS SA (GLPEY - Free Report) and NextDecade Corporation (NEXT - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Ecopetrol’s earrings are expected to grow at 14.6% over the period of 3-5 years. In the past 30 days, per the Zacks Consensus Estimate, the earnings for 2018 have moved up from $1.83 per share to $2.08 by 13.7%.

Galp Energia’s earrings are expected to increase at 15% over the period of 3-5 years. In the past 30 days, per the consensus estimate, the earnings for 2018 have moved north from 58 cents per share to 60 cents by 3.5%.

NextDecade’s earrings are expected to rise at 2.4% over the period of 3-5 years. Over the past month, per the consensus mark, the loss for 2018 has been narrowed from 44 cents per share to 31 cents by 29.6%.

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