Canadian Solar, the largest solar manufacturer in Canada, has borrowed C$104mn (about US$99mn) to construct three solar farms.

The lender is Deutsche Bank and the offtaker is the Ontario Power Authority, which has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement.

The loan will be repaid on a non-recourse basis. The three plants will be constructed simultaneously in Ontario and will have a combined capacity of 30MW. They are expected to be completed and hooked up to the electricity grid by 2014.

The project has benefitted from the Ontario authority’s feed-in tariff programme, which offers generous subsidies to companies building solar plants in the state.

This is the second time the company has borrowed from Deutsche Bank. Last year, it obtained a C$139mn facility – also to construct solar plants in Ontario.

The chairman of Canadian Solar, Shawn Qu, says: “This is the second construction loan package we have signed with Deutsche Bank. We thank it for its continued partnership, which underscores the strength of our tier one position in the solar industry and our prospects for profitable growth. The support of global financial institutions, like Deutsche, allows us to expand our actionable pipeline of the quality projects which our investors would like to acquire.”