Canadian Premium Sand Inc. executes off-take agreements and signs turn-key EPC agreement

CALGARY — Canadian Premium Sand Inc. provided an update regarding its development of a vertically integrated patterned solar glass manufacturing facility.

“We are excited to have reached this important stage in the development of our integrated solar glass manufacturing project. With strong revenue visibility through binding commercial off-take agreements and a high degree of certainty with capital costs and operational performance through our EPC agreement we are confident in our ability to commercialize this high return Project, supporting the global energy transition. With our recent additions of industry expertise to the team, we look forward to a successful financing process that capitalizes our project and enables the delivery of our exciting business plan”, stated Company President & CEO, Glenn Leroux.

The Company has secured firm commercial off-take agreements with three North American solar panel manufacturers including, Hanwha Solutions Corporation, Heliene Inc. and Meyer Burger Technology AG, for a combined total of 62% of planned output capacity and an average renewable contract term of over 4 years. These agreements include options to increase firm off-take volumes by an additional 15% of planned output capacity to a combined total of 77%, subject to mutual agreement.

Hanwha, through its Qcells division, is a solar panel manufacturer and is focused on establishing a comprehensive, low-carbon, domestic supply chain to support its domestic solar energy growth strategy. Qcells has announced plans for a total investment of US$2.66 billion to expand its existing 1.7 GW of production capacity in Georgia, to 8.4 GW by 2024. The Company’s agreement with Qcells incorporates solar glass volumes that represent a material proportion of the Company’s planned output capacity.

Meyer Burger, a Switzerland-based solar panel manufacturer, is building a manufacturing facility in Arizona with 2.0 GW of annual production capacity. In August 2022, Meyer Burger announced a long-term agreement for supply of modules to D.E Shaw Renewable Investments, a large renewable energy project operator in the U.S. Additional off-take agreements between Meyer Burger and two other renowned counterparties were announced in March 2023 and a significant offtake agreement was signed with Ikea in May 2023.

Heliene, a Canadian based company with operations in Ontario and Minnesota, is focused on establishing a domestic solar supply chain to support its growth strategy in North America. Heliene has experienced significant growth since starting in 2010 in Canada and its U.S. operations in 2017 and is currently expanding its manufacturing capacity by 100% to 2GW.

To further complement these contracted volumes, the Company is negotiating additional firm off-take agreements with nine other solar panel manufacturers. The Company has executed MOUs with these counterparties that represent an additional 170% of total planned output capacity and expects to convert several of these MOUs into formal off-take agreements such that 100% of planned output capacity is contracted to further de-risk the project.

Due to higher-than-expected demand, the Company and its EPC consortium have designed an 800 tonne per day solar glass manufacturing facility, significantly larger than the 550 tonne per day facility contemplated in the 2021 FEED study.

The Company has entered into a preliminary construction agreement with the EPC consortium that incorporates a guaranteed maximum cost of $880 million, which is inclusive of the silica sand operation and provides for turn-key project execution, including specific operational and performance guarantees for the Project.