The largest solar photovoltaic power project in South America has started supplying electricity to Google.
Acciona Energia has announced that it has started power supply to Google’s installations in Chile from the El Romero solar power project. The 246 megawatts project is the largest solar PV power plants in South America.
Acciona Energina had signed a contract to the supply of 80 megawatts power to Google’s data center in Quilicura through the Central Interconnected System. Quilicura is one of the 13 Google’s data centers worldwide and the only one located in the Southern hemisphere. The power supply agreement will be in place at least until 2030, with an option to extend it by five years.
“We are proud to supply renewable energy to such an important customer as Google, a company strongly committed to renewables. And to do it from this plant, the biggest photovoltaic installation in Latin America and a key reference within the sector”, says ACCIONA Energía Chile CEO José Ignacio Escobar.
Florencia Bianco, Google Corporate Communications Manager for Latin America, points out that “in 2017 Google will achieve the objective of supplying its global operations with 100% renewable energy. El Romero is a very important element in achieving this objective”.
In November last year, Acciona had announced that it commissioned a 246 MW solar power project in the Atacama region of Chile. The El Romero solar power project was successfully linked to the Central Interconnected System following 13 months of construction.
The project is spread across 280 hectares and consists of 776,000 modules. The project required a total investment of $343 million. Around 500 GWh electricity generated from the project every year would be enough to power 250,000 homes in Chile and offset around 485,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission every year.
