Grenergy, CATL seal 1.25 GWh battery supply deal for Oasis de Atacama

After signing the supply deal for the first three phases of Oasis de Atacama with China’s BYD, Spanish renewables developer Grenergy has now inked a massive supply contract with CATL.

This new agreement will provide phase four of the project, which will begin construction in the coming weeks, the company said. Under the deal, CATL will deliver 1.25 GWh of EnerX model containers.

The EnerX DC Containerized BESS offers a total energy capacity of over 5.6 MWh in a 20-foot container. The system is based on 530 Ah lithium iron phophate battery cells and designed for a service life of 13,000 cycles and 25 years to 65% SoH, thus matching the expected service life of PV systems.

Divided into five phases, Oasis de Atacama is a colocated solar-plus-storage project in northern Chile, which will potentially feature the world’s biggest battery storage site. The massive project got even bigger after Grenergy unveiled plans last month to double the PV portion of its Oasis de Atacama project to 2 GW and expand the battery storage capacity from 4.1 GWh to 11 GWh.

With an overall investment of $2.3 billion, the project broke ground in November 2023. The first phase of Oasis de Atacama is scheduled to be connected by the end of 2024 with the new phases due to be completed in 2025. Grenergy has already agreed to sell the energy from the first four phases of the project and the rest of them, according to the company, are in advanced negotiation phases.

The Madrid-headquartered independent power producer had previously teamed with BYD for the supply of large-scale storage systems, covering the first three phases of the project with a cumulative capacity of 3 GWh. The deal represents the largest supply agreement to date for the Chinese multinational. Ingeteam was announced as an inverter partner on the project.

Now, however, Grenergy has opted for a new battery storage partner, decribing it as a key milestone in the project development.

“The collaboration with CATL is a fundamental milestone to consolidate Oasis de Atacama. We are excited to have signed this first contract and to be working with the world’s leading battery manufacturers on a project that will make industry history,’ said David Ruiz de Andrés, Executive Chairman of Grenergy.

In July, Grenergy announced the financial close of the first two phases of the Oasis de Atacama project for $345 million with the financial institutions BNP Paribas, Natixis, Societe Generale, The Bank of Nova Scotia, and SMBC.