Chile has curtailed nearly 3.4TWh of renewable energy capacity as of September 2024, according to Ana Lía Rojas, executive director at the Chilean renewable energy and energy storage association (ACERA), during the Energy Storage Summit Latin America yesterday (15 October).
Although the event, which is taking place in Santiago, Chile, is centred on energy storage, the technology will play a key role in reducing curtailments of solar PV and wind power in the country, which have soared this year. Estimates for the whole of 2024, taking into account the numbers of 2023, would put curtailments of renewables at over 4.5TWh.
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Rojas also gave an update regarding the state of solar PV in the country, including the installed capacity and development pipeline for the technology. As of September 2024, Chile had a cumulative installed solar PV capacity of nearly 11GW, representing 28.7% of net capacity in the country.
In the coming months, up to Q1 2025, Chile is expected to add 6.4GW of renewable energy, of which 4.1GW is under construction and 2.3GW is in the testing phase. Solar PV represents the bulk of that capacity with 3.2GW.
Looking further into the future, Rojas highlighted the 16.6GW of solar PV which have already received favourable environmental assessment. This represents nearly half of the current cumulative installed capacity of all renewables, which sits at 38.4GW as of September 2024.
This article was first published on our sister-site Energy-storage.news which also covers more aspects of energy storage from the keynote speakers on day one.
