Dr. Shawn Xiaohua Qu, CEO of Canadian Solar gears up to open 500 employee plant in Guelph, Ontario
Photo: Alumnus Dr. Shawn Xiaohua Qu (MMS PhD 9T5), CEO of Canadian Solar Inc (Globe and Mail)
December 17, 2010
Alumnus Dr. Shawn Xiaohua Qu (MMS PhD 9T5) runs one of the ten largest solar panel makers in the world – Kitchener, Ontario-based Canadian Solar Inc., with annual revenue of about $1.2-billion (U.S.). Yet he is almost unknown in Canadian business circles, mainly because the bulk of the company’s manufacturing operations are in China and its customers in more than 30 countries.
That’s about to change, however, as Canadian Solar gears up to open a large solar-panel manufacturing plant in Guelph, Ontario, that will employ 500 workers by mid-2011. The new plant was partly spurred by Ontario’s new Green Energy Act, which pays high prices for solar-generated power if some of the equipment is made in the province.
Read the full article: Solar firm making return to its Canadian roots in the Globe and Mail.
— With files from the Globe and Mail