Canadian Solar just announced that it intends to bump up its yearly production of solar modules from 620 MW to 800 MW. The increase in production is scheduled to be in place by mid-August, and will prepare the company for an expected increase in demand.

To meet the new production goals, Canadian Solar plans to hire 2,000 additional workers on top of its existing staff of 3,000.

In an article from Reuters, Canadian Solar’s President and CEO Shawn Qu made the following comments:

"We expect the demand to show an obvious pick-up in the second half of the year," said Qu. "Shipments in the second quarter are set to at least double from the first quarter, and the third quarter will be even better."

"We were producing a little short of full capacity for cell and module in the first and second quarters, therefore we need to hire more hands to make full use of the capacities," said Qu.

Canadian Solar also hopes to benefit from the Chinese government’s solar power stimulus plan. They have submitted several projects for approval and plan to submit an additional batch in August.  In the article referenced above, Qu commented on the status of those projects:

"The government has not announced approvals on the projects submitted in the first batch, and it’s hard to forecast when such projects would start to contribute to the company’s performance," Qu said.

::: >>>