Chile’s cumulative PV installations hit 4.6 GW

From pv magazine LatAm

Chile's cumulative PV installations reached 4.6 GW at the end of March, according to the latest figures from ACERA, the Chilean renewable energy association.

The numbers also show that solar plants covered around 12.9% of Chile's total electricity demand in March. All renewable sources combined accounted for 23.6% of total national demand. Overall, total renewable energy capacity in Chile stands at roughly 8.2 GW, accounting for 16.5% of the country's total generating capacity.

Utility-scale PV plants account for most of the country's installed solar capacity, while rooftop PV accounts for 167 MW of the total. Small solar parks with capacities of up to 9 MW – developed under the Pequeños Medios de Generación Distribuida, a program to support distributed generation – account for 1.35 GW of the total.

In February of this year, 7,454 installations accounted for 78.3 MW of capacity under the nation's net-metering scheme. In March, under-construction storage capacity hit 5.1 GW. Solar PV projects accounted for 62% of this capacity, with wind farms accounting for 31%.