Chile to become second-largest battery market in Americas after US

The United States has historically held the position of being the largest energy storage market in the Americas, with anticipated deployment of more than 10 GW in 2023. However, countries such Canada, Mexico, and Chile are actively promoting policies to stimulate energy storage development, positioning Chile to become the second-largest energy storage market in the Americas, as projected by UK consultancy Interact Analysis.

While the first electrochemical energy storage projects in Chile made their debut in 2009 and only amounted to around 300 MW by 2022, Chile’s parliament passed legislation in October 2022 to incentivize energy storage and electric mobility development. Furthermore, the government has set an ambitious target of achieving 70% of total energy consumption from renewable sources by 2030.

Consequently, Chile has witnessed a surge in renewable energy generation installations in recent years, creating a pressing demand for energy storage. This summer, $2 billion was allocated for large-scale storage auctions.

In 2023, twelve projects with a combined capacity of approximately 1.3 GW are slated to become operational, with an additional 1 GW planned for installation annually from 2024 to 2026. As of August 2023, Chile has 85 energy storage projects in various stages of development, totaling 6.4 GW.

Among these projects, 60 are in the construction and planning phase, with a collective capacity of about 4.7 GW. Of these, 51 projects are expected to commence operations between 2024 and 2026, with a total capacity of around 3.9 GW.

Electrochemical storage predominates in Chile, accounting for 79 projects with a cumulative capacity of 4.8 GW. These projects primarily focus on large-scale front-of-meter integration of renewable energy, with lithium-ion battery storage serving as the dominant technology. Notably, 31 out of the 79 projects have a continuous discharge duration ranging from 3 to 6 hours, with an average duration exceeding 5 hours.

Additionally, the country hosts five molten salt thermal storage projects, collectively offering 1.6 GW in capacity. Furthermore, a hydrogen energy storage project, developed by HIF Chile, is in the planning stages within the Magallanes-Chile Antarctic Region.