AES Gener to add 253 MW RE and 112 MW Storage to the Grid in Chile

AES Gener is incorporating 253 MW of renewable energy and 112 MW of battery storage into the national electricity system of Chile.

AES Gener has announced that it recently held the virtual groundbreaking of the projects, Andes Solar II-B and Campo Lindo. The projects will incorporate four technologies, which will allow the incorporation of 253 MW of renewable energy and 112 MW of battery storage into the national electricity system of Chile.

Energy Minister of Chile Juan Carlos Jobet said, “This type of investment is a concrete demonstration of the important role of the energy sector in the post-COVID green recovery. We must continue to make decisive progress in the incorporation of renewable energies to clean the generation matrix. This will allow us to have greater energy independence and create jobs that are so necessary for the green economic recovery.”

The minister added “The total closure of coal-fired plants before 2040 is a great challenge that we have set for ourselves. Investments that combine renewable generation with storage will allow us to take a big step to provide flexibility to the system and achieve the objective of having a clean matrix. This project is aligned with the government’s interest to incorporate complementary technologies to give flexibility to the system and to be able to have clean energy across Chile throughout the day.”

Andes Solar II B is be located in the Antofagasta Region and will have a capacity of 180 MW and will be the largest lithium battery storage system (BESS) in Latin America. 10 MW of the 180 MW solar will come from Maverick’s revolutionary technology, which uses modular and prefabricated solar panels that allow installation in a third of the time and occupy half the surface. The remaining 170 MW will be bifacial panels, used at the Andes II A expansion that boasts a record-breaking capacity factor.

The 112 MW BESS uses Fluence’s 6th generation solution, allowing energy to be stored for 5 hours in order to inject the energy generated by the sun’s rays well after sunset, making AES Gener’s energy supply more competitive and resilient.

The 73 MW Campo Lindo wind farm is located near Los Ángeles, in the Biobío Region. The project is the first of several wind farms forming a 480 MW cluster. The cluster nature generates economies of scale during construction and operations and will contribute to making Chile’s electricity system more sustainable.

Ricardo Falú, AES Gener’s CEO, stated “both projects are a fundamental piece of our Greentegra strategy, with which we are accelerating the energy transition process that the country has initiated towards a more competitive and sustainable electricity matrix.

“These initiatives ratify our commitment to Chile and the sustainable reactivation of the country. These two new projects, in addition to the 709 MW currently under construction, will generate a total of about 6,000 direct jobs.”