Canadian Solar was behind the company Zapaleri that received a successful bid in Chile’s July auction with 253MWp of solar PV and 1GWh battery energy storage.
While a total of 15 companies were selected for bidding, only two companies have been successful in their bids with a total of 777GWh of power supply – for an average price of US$37.38/MWh – that amounted to just 14.8% of the 5.250GWh initially auctioned.
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One of them was Zapaleri, while the other successful auction bidder was Spanish developer Fotowatio Renewable Ventures through its Chilean subsidiary.
Latin American-focused energy portal Energía Estratégica revealed that Canadian Solar was behind Zapaleri ahead of the auction last July, but the developer did not make any announcement at the time. But a recent media release revealed that Canadian Solar was, in fact, behind the bid.
The developer gave further details about the “Zaldivar” project which will be located in the region of Antofagasta.
The solar-plus-storage project is currently in mid-stage development and is expected to start construction in 2024 and will be operational in 2026.
Moreover, part of the electricity generated will be purchased by distribution companies in a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) while the remaining will be purchased by private energy off-takers.
Canadian Solar currently has a backlog of 600MWp of solar PV projects in Chile and 2.2GWh of battery storage projects, said Shawn Qu, chairman and CEO at Canadian Solar.
“Chile is one of the most promising renewable markets in Latin America,” added Qu.
Between July 2020 and June 2021, the developer had more than 23.5GW of PV projects in its pipeline, behind only Lightsource bp when it came to the global top 10 PV developers, according to data from Mercom Capital Group. About a third of Canadian Solar’s pipeline is located in Latin America, which has topped the list of regions with most solar developments.
PV Tech will be taking a closer look at the future of solar in Chile in the upcoming edition of PV Tech Power (Number 32), which is due out in September. You can subscribe and access previous editions of the journal here.
