According to foreign media reports, the Spanish renewable energy developer FRV and Smart oEnergy have begun to conduct environmental impact assessment on two solar+energy storage projects planned to be deployed in Chile, one of which will deploy a lithium-ion battery energy storage system with a duration of 8 hours.
The first project is the Cormor á n PV Park, which will deploy 24MW solar power generation facilities and a 9MW/72MWh lithium-ion battery energy storage system. OEnergy, a renewable energy developer, submitted an environmental impact assessment report to the government agency responsible for the assessment on January 27, 2023.
The company invested US $66 million in the project through the Cormor á n SpA plan. The project will be deployed in the Mole area in the south of Santiago, Chile. The battery energy storage system is composed of 66 containers, mainly providing load transfer for renewable energy power generation, and discharging the stored power during peak power demand.
OEnergy aims to put the project into operation in the first quarter of 2025.
OEnergy's environmental assessment document includes the use of the "Reference" battery energy storage unit provided by Huawei, but does not specify whether the company will become a supplier of battery energy storage system for the project.
The second project is the Llanosde Mara ñ ó n photovoltaic park, which includes the construction of a relatively large solar power generation facility with an installed capacity of 432MW. It is planned to be deployed in Vasco Province in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, which is known as the most sunny place in the world.
FRV will develop a battery energy storage system (BESS) in the project and has been approved to submit an environmental impact assessment report on February 6.
FRV did not disclose the installed capacity of the battery energy storage system in the project in the document on the Chilean regulatory agency's website, but said that the company planned to invest 372 million dollars in the park.
A bill passed by the Chilean Senate in October 2022 will promote the development of Chile's energy storage market. The bill allows independently deployed battery energy storage systems to gain revenue by delivering electricity to the country's electricity system market. So far, most of Chile's battery energy storage projects have been co-located with solar power generation facilities or wind power generation facilities, which has been the case since the bill was passed.
Since October last year, Enel Green Power has started to build a 34MW battery energy storage system that is compatible with the wind farm, while the utility company Colb ú n has started to build a solar+energy storage project of similar scale, and Engie Chile has also ordered 638MWh battery energy storage system from Sungrow Power for a solar power generation project.
