Chile’s Largest Floating Solar Power Plant Online

• Valparaiso region in Chile has become home to the country's largest floating solar project
• Hortifrut contracted Solarity to build the project on Mataquito-Hortifrut agricultural dam
• Project will generate clean power for Hortifrut to use to produce blueberries
• Separately, the Valparaiso region has also approved its largest PV project with 191.93 MW capacity to be built by Sonnedix

Horticultural products company Hortifrut in Chile has brought online what it calls the country's largest floating solar power project. It is the company's eight solar plant and also its 1^st floating solar project.

The project is located on 1,500 m2 space on Mataquito-Hortifrut agricultural dam in Santa Teresa, Putaendo in Chile's Valparaiso region. It will enable 53% of the annual energy consumption in Santa Teresa to come from solar energy.

Developed by Chilean company Solarity, the project will provide Hortifrut with renewable electricity at a low cost to produce blueberries. Solarity will continue to offer its operations and maintenance services for the project whose installed capacity wasn't disclosed.

The plant is designed to generate the equivalent of monthly electricity consumption of 116 homes, estimated at 180 kWh per month.

Recently, the Valparaiso Region's Environmental Assessment Commission unanimously approved the Environmental Impact Study of 191.93 MW Meseta de los Andes Solar PV Plant, making it the largest solar project in the region to be approved to date. It will be constructed and operated by Sonnedix for $165 million. The company plans to deploy over 440,000 solar panels for the project that will come up in the commune of Calle Larga.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), till 2019, Chile's cumulative renewable energy capacity was 11.49 GW, to which solar PV contributes 2.648 GW.