100 MW-AC solar project to power the Santiago metro

Share

Today SunPower, Total and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced a solar project that will supply 42% of the electricity used by the subway system in Santiago, Chile.

SunPower plans to begin construction on the Pelican solar plant near the border of the Coquimbo and Atacama Regions this year, and complete the plant by the end of 2017. The plant will supply an estimated 300 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually to the metro under a power purchase agreement.

SunPower will design and build the plant using its Oasis Power Block modular system. The company will additionally provide operations and maintenance services using its robotic cleaning solution, which it says will reduce water usage.

In addition to the Pelican solar project, the Santiago metro will also be powered by the new San Juan wind project, which will provide another 18% of the system’s electricity needs. Together, the two projects will meet 60% of the metro’s electricity demand for powering trains, lighting stations and other needs.

Investment in these two renewable energy projects will total be around US$500 million.

These projects will enter into service in 2018 and supply the metro for 15 years. During this time the remaining 40% of the system’s electricity will be supplied by Chilean electric company Chilectra. 2.5 million Chileans use the Santiago metro every day, according to President Bachelet.

“It is an example which hopefully we can extend, as quickly as possible, to other private and public companies, and certainly to our global energy mix as in our nation,” stated President Bachelet. The announcement was made during a visit to the National Stadium station, which is under construction.

With this initiative, Chile seeks to contribute to the CO2 reduction goals passed this last year in the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.

In Chile there are currently 3 GW-AC of non-conventional renewable energy plants, a definition which excludes large hydro, in operation. Of these, 1.1 GW-AC are PV projects.

An earlier version of this article appeared in Spanish on the pv magazine Latinoamérica website.

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Popular content

Longi introduces 665 W HPBC photovoltaic modules

11 October 2024 The Chinese PV manufacturer said its new module series has a power conversion efficiency of up to 24.8% and temperature coefficient is -0.26% per C.

Share

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.