Michelle Bachelet, the president of Chile, and Chile’s minister of energy, Andrés Rebolledo, held a ceremony to inaugurate the 100MW El Pelícano solar power plant in Chilean region of Coquimbo.
The project is owned by SunPower and was developed on 186 hectares of land in La Higuera.
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Now operational, the 100MW PV installation generates enough electricity to meet the energy needs of an average of 120,000 Chilean homes. Electricity generated by the site will be used to support the Metro system of the Chilean capital, Santiago.
Bachelet said: “The Santiago Metro will thus be the first in the world to operate with 60% of the energy coming from solar and wind power plants. No other metro has incorporated such a magnitude of unconventional renewable energy in its consumption.
She added: “What has been confirmed here is not only a way of understanding energy, but also the economy itself, one in which innovation stimulates growth for the benefit of all: people, the country and the environment. It is not a theory, it is a will to make it a reality, and here – and in the Metro de Santiago – the results are in sight.”