The announcement was made during the official inauguration ceremony of the 246MWp El Romero Solar photovoltaic plant in the Atacama Desert in Chile.
Acciona has connected the El Romero solar plant to the county’s Interconnected Central System (SIC) in 2016.
The Spanish clean energy company, which currently owns 897MW of wind and photovoltaic power capacity in Chile, Mexico and Costa Rica, plans to put 700MW of projects under construction phase in the last trimester of this year with targeted commissioning in 2018 and 2019.
The firm said other projects, which are at very advanced stage of development, are planned to be completed in 2020. This brings the total installed clean generation capacity in Latin America to 2GW.
All of these renewable energy projects will be owned and operated by Acciona.
Owned and operated by Acciona Energía, the El Romero Solar facility features 776,000 photovoltaic modules, spread across 280ha area in the municipality of Vallenar, 645km north of the Santiago.
In addition to reducing CO2 emission of approximately 485,000 tons per year, the plant can generate clean energy required to meet power needs of 245,000 Chilean homes annually.
Acciona president José Manuel Entrecanales said: "Chile meets all the conditions to be a leader in the development of renewable energy in the world and our El Romero Solar plant is a perfect example of it.”
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Chile has potential to generate 50% of its total power generation from renewable sources in five years (2022) compared with 39% in 2016.
Image: Officials during the inauguration ceremony of the El Romero Solar plant in Chile. Photo: courte4sy of ACCIONA.
