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The Canadian firm Automated Tooling Systems (ATS) has agreed to provide two 5-kW solar systems for China, a grid-connected system in Beijing and a stand-alone system in Qingham Province in the western China, and should be finished by the August. The demonstration projects are part of $5 million CAD deal signed last December and announced in Beijing on January 25 by the minister of Natural Resources Canada, Ralph Goodale, during a visit to China. The ATS project, in partnership with CANMET’s Energy Diversification Research Laboratory (CEDRL), is also designed to develop two PV production lines for possible sale to the Canadian market. One is a high-end, fully-automated 10 MW line for modules up to 200 watts. The other is a low-cost, semi-automated line which could handle 1 to 4 MW annually. According a to a press release from the NRC, the second line would be exported to China. Shawn QU, director of PV development at ATS, would only say his company has received interest from »Asia and other parts of the world« for the purchase of both production lines. He says some Canadian companies are also interested in buying the lines, but would not elaborate on where the interest was coming from. At least three other demonstration projects are planned for Canada – in Banff National Park, Victoria, BC, and at ATS itself – but no decision had been made on the size of the systems. ATS and its private sector partners are investing about $3 million in the project, with the other $2 million coming from the Canadian government as part of its goal to meet a six percent reduction in green house gases by 2010. William
P. Hirshman
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