Spanish construction firm GES (Global Energy Services) has secured a contract to build a roughly 700MW solar-wind-storage hybrid project in Chile.
The company said the project, located in the Antofagasta region of Chile, is the largest in its history, comprising a cumulative 695MW of solar PV, wind power and energy storage capacity. The project is expected to come online in 2027.
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Sources familiar with the operation told PV Tech that the site is being developed and owned by AES Andes, the Chilean electricity utility. Last month, AES Andes announced 1.3GW of co-located renewable energy projects in Chile, including the Pampas project, a solar-wind-storage hybrid site in Antofagasta featuring 229MW of solar PV, 128MW of wind capacity and a 171MW 5-hour duration battery energy storage system (BESS).
GES said the expansion in Chile supports its strategy to spread into international markets. It has already built over 1,178 MW of wind and solar PV projects in Chile. It also marks its plan to move away from standalone solar and wind projects and operate with a “strong commitment to energy storage.”
José Luis García Donoso, CEO of GES, added: “The combination of three renewable technologies in a single facility sets the short-term direction for the sector. Furthermore, it will be the facility with the largest storage capacity in Latin America to date.”
The increasing curtailment of renewable energy projects in Chile has pushed the market towards co-located renewables with storage. Data shows that 6TWh of solar PV and wind capacity was curtailed in 2024, more than twice the curtailments in 2023. Renewable energy accounted for around 40% of Chile’s energy mix in 2024.
The situation is so extreme that, late last year, PV Tech Premium heard that building solar PV without energy storage was “financially unviable” in Chile.
AES Andes has been one of the leading firms for co-located projects in Chile. In October it commissioned a 221MW solar-plus-storage project and it either operates or is developing numerous others across the country.
