Enel Green Power has begun construction on two PV plants in northern Chile – the 60MW Lalackama project and the 40MW Chañares project.
The 60MW Lalackama project is expected to be the Enel’s largest PV plant as well as the third-largest one in Latin America. Once built and fully operational, the plant will be capable of generating up to 160 GWh per year, equivalent to the electricity needs of about 90 thousand Chilean households, and will avoid the emission of over 100 thousand tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. The new plant is expected to require around 110 million US dollars to build.
The near-completed Chañares plant is located next to the Diego de Almagro solar farm (36 MW), and it is also the company’s first solar farm in Chile. With an installed capacity of 40 MW, the power plant will be capable of generating up to 94 GWh once fully up and running. This is equivalent to the electricity needs of about 53 thousand Chilean households and will avoid the emission of over 59 thousand tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. It is expected to come on line sometime in late 2014 or early 2015 and is expected to require around 70 million US dollars to build.
Both projects have power supply contracts to sell the electricity generated on the regulated market. These contracts were awarded in November 2013 via a tender held by 26 distributors for Chile’s Central Interconnected System. Additionally, both projects will utilize JinkoSolar’s crystalline silicon PV modules, says SolarServer.
In Chile, Enel Green Power owns and operates 180MW of wind farms and is now construction the largest wind project (99MW) domestically. It is also exploring geothermal concessions with the potential of generating more than 100 MW in installed capacity.