The Santiago Solar plant is located in the Til-Til community, 50km north of Chile’s capital Santiago. It is owned 50-50 by EDF and Chilean infrastructure developer Andes Mining Energy (AME).
Connected to the national electricity grid, the new solar plant is capable of generating about 210GWh per year, which would be enough to meet the annual power consumption needs of over 90,000 Chilean homes.
Comprising about 400,000 solar modules, the solar plant has been built over 200 hectares of land. It was built by Spanish company Elecnor under an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract.
The Santiago Solar facility is backed by a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with some of the main power distributors in Chile. EDF said that some of the power produced by the solar plant will also be sold in the spot market.
The company, in a statement, said: “This large-scale new solar energy facility in the country represents another step forward under the EDF Group’s Cap 2030 strategy, which aims to double its renewable energy capacity by 2030 both in France and worldwide.”
The Santiago Solar power plant will be managed by GreenPowerMonitor through its GPM monitoring solutions.
Santiago Solar is the second large-scale power project for EDF in Chile after the 146MWp Bolero solar plant, which was commissioned last year.
EDF, which forayed in Chile in 2015, has now expanded its portfolio of solar and wind energy capacity in service and under construction in Chile to 360MW.
Image: The Santiago Solar plant in Chile comprises about 400,000 solar modules. Photo: courtesy of EDF Energies Nouvelles.
