The behind the scenes work at Canadian Premium Sands (CPS) that will result in hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions invested in the City of Selkirk is moving along nicely.
CPS has made significant progress, including securing its Environmental Licence to construct and operate its proposed patterned solar glass plant.
Tim Feduniw, the city’s Director of Sustainable Economic Development, says there’s been plenty of progress made on CPS’s plan to build North America’s only patterned solar glass manufacturing plant in Selkirk.
“We’re moving closer and it’s really exciting,” Feduniw said.
“We continue to work closely with CPS and it’s encouraging to see the progress they’re making towards 300-plus new jobs in the community combined with close to a billion-dollar capital investment.”
City’s largest employer in over 100 years plus new spinoff industry to come
The new plant will be located on 121-acres off Hwy. 9 in the city’s original industrial park.
CAO Duane Nicol said the decision for CPS to locate here is akin to the arrival of the city’s largest employer more than 100 years ago.
“This puts Selkirk on the map for the new green economy, and there’s going to be spinoff industry that’s going to come here, benefitting the city, bringing more jobs and more economic growth to the community,” Nicol said.
“This will have a positive impact on Selkirk for generations to come. The location of the CPS solar glass manufacturing plant will be as impactful on our city as the mill was all those years ago.”
In May, CPS announced the appointment of Dana Partridge as Vice President of Glass Operations. Partridge brings significant glass manufacturing experience gained over a 20+ year career across a variety of roles with Guardian Industries in glass plant operations.
During his time with Guardian Industries, Partridge had management oversight of multiple glass production facilities in the firm’s U.S., Latin America and Asia-Pacific regions and he managed the construction, commissioning and staffing of a 500 tonne per day greenfield glass manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia.
Following his career at Guardian Industries, Partridge contributed to the success of a number of manufacturing companies and is joining CPS from Tacoma Glass Manufacturing, in Burlington, Washington.
Partridge will work initially as a management consultant pending his relocation here.
Theresa Jester has joined CPS’s board of directors. Jester has more than 40 years of experience as a corporate executive and board member in solar energy technology, engineering and hardware manufacturing organizations.
Plant increased to 800 tonnes of output per day, up from the originally planned 500 tonnes per day
CPS has secured off-take agreements with three North American solar panel manufacturers for a combined total of 62 per cent of planned output capacity and an average renewable contract term of over 4 years. An offtake agreement is a legally binding agreement between two parties wherein a customer commits to buy all or a portion of a manufacturer’s future production. 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.
The finalized engineering and design of the Selkirk plant has been increased to 800 tonnes of output per day, up from the originally planned 500 tonnes per day, due to higher-than-expected demand.
“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,” said Glenn Leroux, CPS President and CEO.
“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.”
Questions regarding jobs, the construction, operations of the plant should be directed to CPS directly.
Website: https://cpsglass.com/
Email: [email protected]
