European solar demand up

LOS ANGELES / Canadian Solar Inc. is scrambling to ramp up production of solar panels to meet an unexpected surge in demand from Europe, chief executive Shawn Qu said Tuesday.

German customers, in particular, have increased orders in anticipation of a reduction in the government’s subsidy for solar energy in the coming months, Qu said.

“We have seen very strong demand in the past few weeks which caught us a little bit off guard,” Qu said. “At this moment we are trying to ramp up as much as possible to supply our European customers.”

Canadian Solar is based in Ontario, but has most of its operations in China.