Solar Panel on the World.jpg [3]

Canadian Solar Inc [4]. (NASDAQ: CSIQ [5]) stocks soared up nearly 10% at market close Tuesday following announcements that solar farms employing the company's panels had come online.

On Monday, the Ontario-based solar panel manufacturer announced that three solar farms constructed [6] using its solar modules were now operational in the United Kingdom.

It took Isolux Corsan just 10 weeks to build the three 5 MW solar power plants. The plants, which are located in Langford, Churchtown and Manor, will collectively use 22,000 Canadian Solar modules to generate 15 MW of renewable energy. Each one of the facilities represents the largest photovoltaic (PV) solar power plant in the UK.

Just a day later, across the water in Germany, Senftenberg II/III, the world's largest PV solar farm [7], began feeding energy to the electric grid. The saferay company has implemented a 78 MW portion of what will be a 166 MW solar facility.  Of the power plant's combined output, 148 MW will be generated using 636,000 Canadian Solar PV modules.

These announcements represent positive news for the North American solar industry after bankruptcies [8], highlighted by Solyndra, have garnered international headlines the last two weeks. 

To date, 2011 has been a very successful year for Canadian Solar.  In its Q2 financial report, the company noted that its solar module shipments were up nearly 60% compared to 2010 [9].  Major developments in three of the worlds largest solar markets -- China [10], India [11], and Germany -- are surely contributing to the company's increased shipments this year.