Grid-scale

Plans for 1 GWh of energy storage in Chile

Japanese and French companies are planning to hybridize three big solar sites in the country’s Atacama Desert region.

By

Pilar Sanchez Molina, Luis Ini

Oct 04, 2024

French energy company Engie has announced its 68 MWE/418 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Antofagasta, Chile, has been energized and is in the testing phase.

Installed to add an energy storage element to the existing, 114 MW Tamaya solar plant, the Tamaya BESS project is one of three systems being installed to hybridize PV sites in Chile.

Engie said its 48 MW/264 MWh Capricornio BESS facility, north of Antofagasta, is 72% complete just as Japanese companies Sojitz Corp. and Shikoku Electric Power Corp. announced construction will begin on a 98 MW/312 MWh BESS at the Huatacondo PV project in the Atacama Desert in the first three months of 2025.

The 103 MW, $121 million Huatacondo solar project has been operating since 2019 and is currently 60% owned by Sojitz, 30% by Shikoku, and 10% by original developer the French civil engineer Eiffage Energia.

The 103 MW Huatacondo PV plant was inaugurated in 2019. Image: Eiffage Energia

The energy storage element of the Huatacondo project is being financed under Japan’s Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), which backs emissions reduction projects outside Japan. Huatacondo is the second JCM-backed storage project in Chile and the first to hybridize an existing solar site.

Canadian Solar-owned business e-Storage has secured the engineering, procurement, and construction services contract to supply Huatacondo with one of its SolBank 3.0, high-density lithium ferro-phosphate (LFP) energy storage systems, which includes liquid cooling.

Engie’s Tamaya BESS site features 152 battery containers installed on a former diesel power plant owned by the company and will hybridize a solar site which has been feeding electricity into the Chilean grid since December 2021. Engie said the battery has already supplied more than 4 GWh into Chile’s electricity network.

The French business said all 96 battery containers at its Capricornio BESS project have been connected at a site which will hybridize an 88 MWac solar project.

In April 2024, Engie inaugurated its 139 MW/638 MWh BESS Coya project in the commune of María Elena, Antofagasta.

From pv magazine Latin America articles about Engie and Huatacondo.

Written by

Pilar Sanchez Molina
Pilar worked as managing editor for an international solar magazine, in addition to editing books, primarily in the fields of literature and art. She joined pv magazine in May 2017, where she manages the Spanish newsletter and website and helps write and edit articles for the daily news section in Latin America.
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Luis Ini
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