Toronto (March 9, 2010) - Canadian Solar Inc.,
one of the world's largest solar companies, today announced the
activation of a 540kW ground- mount photovoltaic (PV) solar
electric system at Minturn Huller Cooperative, Inc., a premier
almond huller and sheller for more than 260 almond growers in
Central Valley, Calif.
The new solar installation, featuring Canadian Solar's
high-performance modules, began producing clean energy for the
facility in December at a projected annual output of 788 MWh.
Minturn Huller will experience cost savings of roughly 20 percent
off its annual electric bill, or approximately $40,000 a year.
"Our facility runs an electric-intensive process that removes
hulls and shells from nuts 24-hours a day, seven days a week from
August to November. We are ecstatic to now be producing such a huge
portion of our own energy at significant savings, while reducing
our carbon footprint," said Jeff Hamilton, general manager with
Minturn Huller Cooperative, Inc. "As the agricultural community
continues to see costs rise year after year, utilizing clean solar
energy will allow us to better manage our budgets over the long
term without sacrificing process quality."
The Minturn Huller system consists of more than 2,700 CS6P-200PE
e-Modules across two acres of land, currently harvesting 788,000
kW/h per year at peak capacity. The high-quality e-Modules are made
of unique solar-grade silicon that requires 85 percent less energy
to produce and generates 90 percent less waste than semiconductor
silicon.
With the e-Modules, the facility's system will curtail the
release of 412,907 pounds of carbon dioxide each year and produce
about 60 percent of the facility's main meter