An aerial view of the 230MW PV, 32MWh energy storage project in the Atacama desert. Image: Colbún S.A.
Utility Colbún has inaugurated a solar-plus-storage project with a 32MWh battery energy storage system in the Atacama region, the first of an 800MW deployment target.
The Diego de Almagro project is a 330-hectare site comprising 470,000 solar panels totalling 230MW of power and a 8MW/32MWh BESS allowing for four hours of full power discharge.
Finland-headquartered energy technology company Wärtsilä was awarded the energy storage system integrator contract a year ago and provided its GridSolve Quantum utility-scale BESS product (pictured below) along with its GEMS Digital Energy Platform to manage and optimise the system with the solar PV.
The overall project totalled US$150 million of investment of which the BESS was US$11 million.
The project is…