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SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES - Project assets (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
Project assets
Solar power systems reclassified to project assets-current	$ 1,202.1	$ 111.3
Solar power systems reclassified to project assets-non-current	$ 160.0	$ 2.8
Buildings
Property, plant and equipment
Estimated useful lives	20 years
Machinery | Minimum
Property, plant and equipment
Estimated useful lives	5 years
Machinery | Maximum
Property, plant and equipment
Estimated useful lives	10 years
Furniture, fixtures and equipment
Property, plant and equipment
Estimated useful lives	5 years
Motor vehicles
Property, plant and equipment
Estimated useful lives	5 years
Solar power systems | Minimum
Property, plant and equipment
Estimated useful lives	20 years
Solar power systems | Maximum
Property, plant and equipment
Estimated useful lives	25 years

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- References

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- Definition

Represents the amount of solar power systems reclassified to current project assets.

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- Definition

Represents the amount of solar power systems reclassified to non-current project assets.

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No definition available.

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

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No definition available.

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- Definition

Useful life of long lived, physical assets used in the normal conduct of business and not intended for resale, in 'PnYnMnDTnHnMnS' format, for example, 'P1Y5M13D' represents the reported fact of one year, five months, and thirteen days. Examples include, but not limited to, land, buildings, machinery and equipment, office equipment, furniture and fixtures, and computer equipment.

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