Engie Chile greenlit to build 300-MW solar farm with storage

Electric utility company Engie Energia Chile SA announced that it has secured an environmental approval to boost the size of a small existing solar farm in northern Chile by 300 MW and add energy storage.

The approval enables the company to install the additional capacity next to the 6.24-MWp Pampa Camarones solar farm in the region of Arica y Parinacota and connect around 180 MW of batteries for five hours of storage.

Engie plans to build the Pampa Camarones expansion in two 150-MW phases, and keep the first 6.24-MWp plant at the site.

The new construction plan modifies the original proposal for Pampa Camarones, which was permitted in 2014 as a 300-MW development but one requiring some 1.2 million solar modules. In the new request for environmental approval, Engie proposed the install the desired capacity using a much smaller number of more powerful modules and inject all 306 MW at the site into the grid.

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