Leading PV manufacturer, Yingli Green is targeting supplying PV modules to large-scale projects in Chile, having established a new office in Santiago, Chile and headhunted industry veteran Robert Muhn from Trina Solar to serve as Managing Director of Yingli Green Energy Chile.
According to the latest figures from Chile’s renewable energy institute Centro de Energias Renovables (CER), cumulative PV installations in the country have reached 184MW at the end of June, 2014.
However, projects under development have increased significantly in recent months, reaching 448MW at the end of June, compared to only 163MW in May, 2014. The PV project pipeline in the country has topped 5.8GW.
According to Yingi Green, Muhn will be responsible for winning orders to supply modules to large-scale solar plants across Latin America. Yingli Green said it had already supplied over 25MW of modules to projects in Chile.
“Chile is a high-potential solar market and home to some of the strongest solar irradiation in the world, particularly in the Atacama Desert,” noted Robert Muhn, Managing Director of Yingli Green Energy Chile. “While we see tremendous growth potential in Chile's utility-scale market, we also anticipate that the country's relatively high electricity prices and strong solar resources will provide a foundation for a thriving and sustainable distributed generation market in the future,” he added.
According to GTM Research, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico are expected to lead PV installations in 2014, while the Latin American region is expected to install more than 700MW this year.