Chile recently had its largest solar power project connected to the grid – a 160 MW solar PV power project commissioned in the northern part of the country.
Enel Green Power Chile Ltda. recently announced that it commissioned a 160 MW solar PV power project located in the municipality of María Elena in the Antofagasta Region, around 1,300 km north of Santiago.
The project has the capacity of generate more than 400 GWh electricity every year enough to power around 198,000 Chilean households and offset more than 198,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
Enel reported that it invested around $270 million in the construction of the project. Power generated from the project shall be delivered to Chile’s Northern Region Transmission Network, SING (Sistema Interconectado del Norte Grande).
Enel, through its subsidiary, now operates a combined installed capacity of over 880 MW, of which 364 MW comes from wind power, 430 MW from PV solar and 92 MW from hydropower. Additionally, the company has a pipeline of 300 MW capacity under development, including a 48 MW geothermal power plant – slated to be the first in South America.
The project is not expected to hold on to the tag of being the largest solar power project in Latin America for long. By the end of the next year, Enel is expected to commission a 254 MW solar power project that it has already started construction on in Brazil. In the recent auctions of solar power projects in Brazil, Enel has managed to secure 553 MW capacity.
