Construction begins on Chile’s 312 MWh Huatacondo battery

Construction has begun on the 98 MW/312 MWh Huatacondo battery energy storage system (BESS) project in the Chilean region of Tarapacá.

Developer AustrianSolar Chile Cuatro SpA awarded the battery contract to Canadian Solar subsidiary E-Storage and Tritec-Intervento will construct the rest of the site.

Tritec said the project will feature alternating-current coupled SolBank 3.0 batteries, which were selected because of their cooling system. Spain’s Power Electronics will supply the inverters and the BESS will be integrated with the Huatacondo photovoltaic park using a supervisory control and data acquisition system.

The Huatacondo BESS is the second Chilean project approved under Japan’s JCM, and the first hybrid project in the country under the program. The JCM partially credits emissions reductions to Japan’s NDC thanks to the nation’s contribution to developing clean energy infrastructure in developing countries.

In 2019, the Huatacondo solar power plant, “S4 Solar,” developed by French engineering business Eiffage Concessions and Eiffage Energía, was inaugurated. It is located in the heart of the Atacama Desert, in Chile. The $121 million site has a generation capacity of 103 MW. That project was developed by AustrianSolar Chile and Desarrollos Fotovoltaicos de Chile. Japan’s Sojitz and Shikoku Electric Power, plus Eiffage are the current owners of the project, with stakes of 60%, 30%, and 10% respectively.

From pv magazine LatAm.