pv magazine Australia: We saw an extremely rapid expansion of the Australian PV market in 2018 – across all market segments. How confident are you that Australian market can sustain these rate of growth, or even an annual installation rate of around 3.5 GW into the future?
Shawn Qu: I would prefer the market to continue, with around 2-3 GW each year. But also, if we can bring energy storage online fast enough, then we would be able to provide a real 24/7 service, and we will be able to maintain the market at this level. I don’t like boom and bust cycles.
Looking at all of the [large scale] project development, there is something like 40-50 GW of projects being developed at present. I think 40-50 GW, Australia can take it, but certainly not in one year. That volume of installations should be carried out over 15-20 years. The pace of installation should be kept in line with the pace of decommissioning of the coal power plants. But for that, it will take 20-30 years.
Talking about energy storage, what is Canadian Solar’s engagement with storage?
We have a few engagements. A couple of years ago we won a contract in Canada in Ottowa to build a 5 MW energy storage facility – pure energy storage, no solar. This is for Ottowa Hydro. That project was awarded four or five years ago, but we are just commissioning it now. That shows how much of a learning curve both Canadian Solar, the utility and the equipment provider and integrator went through over this period. This project was slow, we learned, we will lose money for sure – but that’s ok, it’s a part of the R&D process and the experience gathering [process].
Last year we signed another PPA in California, this time for 185 MWh, or somewhere around that. It will be the largest solar-plus-energy storage project in California, and probably the second largest in the United States. We will deliver this before the end of 2020. That will give us very good experience in how to integrate a solar-plus-energy storage in an important market marketplace, and for a major utility.
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