CANADA provider rather than just a ‘ solar panel company ,” he says . “ We ’ re trying to really understand what our customers are looking for , what ’ s prohibiting them from being successful , and then developing solutions to cater for that .”

Initially beginning its O & M services from an asset owner perspective , Canadian Solar has sold many of its assets to third parties as it has built and developed new ones . Demonstrating its business acumen , Canadian Solar continues to provide O & M services to these third party clients and has expanded its solutions to include a unique offering of products including medium voltage stations , string inverters , PV connectors as well as its PV modules . “ Now , we primarily service the projects that we sold and thanks to our O & M services we have been able to leverage our knowledge to maximise the efficiency and performance of these assets ,” says Marx .

Driving efficiency A commitment to efficiency and performance is integral to Canadian Solar ’ s ethos . The company ’ s PV panels have been so thoroughly tested under harsh conditions , that it not only offers a 25-year warranty , but also guarantees the power output for

20 years . The company also conducts 359 internal quality tests daily and , in doing so , keeps efficiency and productivity high on its agenda .

This commitment to efficiency also extends to Canadian Solar ’ s O & M services . “ We ’ ve recently developed a custom monitoring software platform that conducts a performance test every day based on the previous day ’ s performance ,” adds Marx . “ This allows us to verify every single day that a plant has or hasn ’ t performed as it was expected to , even if there are no obvious problems or alarms . This essentially

www . energydigital . com 51