Acciona Energia has connected its 246MW El Romero Solar plant to the Central Interconnected System (SIC) grid in the Atacama region of Chile.
Construction of what is claimed to be the largest completed solar plant in Latin America took 13 months using 776,000 modules across 280 hectares and requiring an investment of US$343 million. It will produce around 500GWh of electricity per year, equivalent to the electricity demand of nearly a quarter of a million Chilean homes.
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However entering the entire plant into commercial service will still require a few more weeks of work.
The plant is located in the municipality of Vallenar, which is around 645km north of Santiago. It was completed two months ahead of schedule.
Acciona Energia Chile general manager José Ignacio Escobar said: “We completed the project in record time. We are committed to the objective of achieving a clean and sustainable energy mix in Chile, and the best way to demonstrate this is to complete the projects we undertake to the technical quality standards required and in the shortest possible timescale.”
Acciona won a183MW wind project in Chile’s largest ever power auction in August and after a recent Mexico tender award it plans to build 180MW of solar in Sonora.