Building A Billion-Dollar Solar Company: Canadian Solar CEO Shawn Qu (Part 6)

Sramana: It appears that other than Canada, your primary market has been Europe.

Shawn Qu: Europe is the leader. We also have very strong sales in the Asia Pacific area as well as in North America. We sell a lot to the U.S. and Canada. We also sell a steady supply into Korea and have an office in Australia. The driving factor for people to adopt solar is economics. There are many different types of scenarios that occur throughout the world, but in most cases when the economics work for the consumer there are very few other barriers remaining for them to adopt solar energy.

Sramana: Would you talk specifically about what is happening in the U.S. and Chinese markets? What trends do you see? Solar adoption in Europe was driven in large part by policy. Is that what is driving sales in the U.S. and China as well?

Shawn Qu: In Europe, the solar market is driven by policy. That policy also has strong public support. People like to install solar and want to get away from nuclear power. They have a personal desire to be green. In the U.S., I see that trend as well. Solar is something that fascinates everyone. The only question is how to finance the solar project. In the U.S. the key markets are California and New Jersey. We have started to see policy changes in the U.S. that drive some adoption. Sooner or later the U.S. will overtake Germany to become the top market for solar. I think the public perception is already there, ready to receive solar energy and they just need more economic incentive to adopt solar energy. There are also utilities in the U.S. that are looking at solar projects to augment their energy production as well, and that may increase in the future.

Sramana: What about China?

Shawn Qu: China is an interesting market. From a manufacturing standpoint, they have the largest solar panel manufacturing base in the world. We are a Canadian registered company, but most of our production is in China and a limited amount of production in Canada. Of the top six solar manufacturers in the world, three of them have their manufacturing base in China.

Whenever there is a strong industry in a region, it will impact the local market. China has an energy shortage that has naturally created a demand for distributed power solutions. Solar is still more expensive than fossil fuels, but China started a national program two years ago for large-scale utility projects. They have had one round of bidding in 2010 and there will be another round in the summer of 2011. I think that China will become a gigawatt market very soon.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Building A Billion-Dollar Solar Company: Canadian Solar CEO Shawn Qu
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