Acciona Energia Boosts Chilean Solar Power with a Massive Chile solar battery Upgrade
In a significant move to bolster Chile’s renewable energy infrastructure, Acciona Energía is heavily invested in Chile’s solar market and has announced plans to install a massive 1GWh battery at its 238MWp Malgarida solar farm. Located in the sun-drenched Atacama Desert, this project involves retrofitting one of the region’s largest Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) to an existing solar facility, marking a critical step in the country’s green energy transition.
This gigawatt-hour-scale battery is designed to tackle one of the main challenges of solar power: intermittency. The system will help stabilize the national grid by capturing excess solar energy generated during the day and dispatching it during periods of high demand or when the sun isn’t shining. This ensures a more reliable and consistent power supply, optimizing the output of the renewable energy plant.
The Malgarida solar farm is already a powerhouse, expected to produce approximately 660GWh of clean electricity annually. This output is equivalent to the consumption of around 287,000 Chilean households, showcasing the immense scale of renewable projects in the nation, similar to the recently inaugurated Cerrillos plant which powers 600,000 homes.
This development is not an isolated event but part of a larger trend across Chile. The nation is rapidly becoming a global leader in integrating large-scale solar with energy storage. Other major players are also making significant investments, such as the impressive Chile solar storage project by Atlas Renewable Energy and the multi-billion dollar expansion by AES Andes with its own solar and BESS projects. The strategy is being adopted at various scales, with even the Chilean utility on Easter Island seeking partners for similar integrated systems.
For homeowners and tenants in Germany, Chile’s ambitious projects demonstrate the growing maturity and scalability of solar-plus-storage solutions. They offer a glimpse into the future of stable, renewable-powered grids that could one day become the standard across Europe, enhancing energy independence and security.
To learn more about the technologies driving this change, explore our free e-course on the solar industry.
