Latin America Solar PV News Snippets

EDF inaugurates Chile's 'largest' solar power plant; Grenergy raises funds for Chile hybrid project: Neoenergia to build solar plants for Brazilian army; Elera & BRK announce partnership.  

480 MW online in Chile: EDF and Chilean company AME's joint venture (JV) Generadora Metropolitana has commissioned a 480 MW project, calling it the largest solar power plant in Chile. The project CEME 1 is stationed 7 kilometers away from Maria Elena, a town in the middle of the Atacama Desert. It is equipped with 882,000 high-efficiency solar panels on 435 hectares of land. It will produce enough clean energy to supply 500,000 households. The JV is now also working on a 1,200 MWh batteries project to store energy from the plant.  

Financial close for Chile project: Spanish independent power producer (IPP) Grenergy Renovables has announced achieving financial close on phases 1 and 2 of what it says is the world's largest storage project. The Oasis de Atacama project in northern Chile is connected to a solar power plant in hybrid mode. The financing covers the initial 2 phases of the project corresponding to 220 MW of solar and 1.24 GWh of storage, according to the company. Phase 1 of the project is scheduled to be commissioned by 2024-end, with the remaining to follow suit in 2025. Financing of $345 million as a green loan, with other complementary credit lines, was signed with BNP Paribas, Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, Societe Generale, The Bank of Nova Scotia and SMBC. Grenergy said the project has 75% of its energy contracted through long-term power purchase agreements (PPA).  

Solar for Brazilian army: Part of Spain's Iberdrola Group, energy distributor Neoenergia will build 10 solar power plants with a combined 2.1 MW capacity for the Brazilian Armed Forces. It recently signed a Technical Cooperation Agreement with the Ministry of Defense to make this BRL 8.8 million investment. This capacity is expected to generate 370 MWh/year. It will also help replace 3.6 thousand inefficient light bulbs with LED models in the buildings of the Army, Navy and Air Force. These are located in the Federal District, Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte and São Paulo.  

108 MW online in Colombia: Zelestra, previously Solarpack, has grid-connected its 108 MW La Mata Solar Power Plant in Colombia. This project in the Municipality of La Gloria is the company's 2nd solar power plant in the country. Built for an investment of $80 million, it follows the company's 144 MW La Union Project, which was recently connected to the Colombian grid.  

48 MW solar investment for BRK: Brazilian sanitation company BRK will procure solar power from 48 MW installed capacity out of the Janaúba Solar Complex in Brazil for its own consumption between 2025 and 2039. For this, it has entered into a partnership with a Brookfield company Elera Renováveis. The latter said the business model here is called the self-production by equivalence in which the consumer acts as a partner in the enterprise that will supply the electricity. Hence, BRK will have a shareholding in the enterprise and receive a license to produce electricity for its exclusive use.