Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet has inaugurated the 100MW El Pelicano solar plant that will power the Metro of Santiago.
The Metro of Santiago has become the world’s first public transportation system to run on renewable energy. About 60% of the metro’s electricity consumption will be supplied by solar and wind power.
The President stated that no other metro has incorporated renewable energy in its consumption at such a magnitude.
In 2016, SunPower signed a power purchase agreement to supply solar electricity through the project. As per the agreement, the solar plant will supply about 300GWh of clean energy every year for the subway.
The solar plant located in Coquimbo Region, where it is spread across in an area of 174 hectares and with more than 250,000 panels, it can produce enough electricity to be supplied to 120,000 local homes.
At the inaugural ceremony, Bachelet stated that investment in renewable sector reached 17bn in 2017 from $9bn in 2014. In 2013, there were 11 wind farms and 5 solar plants in country and five years later, the number has been gone up by more than two times and 14 times respectively.
Enel’s Chilean subsidiary Enel Generación Chile had won the tender for a total of 242MW of renewable energy capacity in Chile. The tender is part of Chile’s National Energy Commission (Comisión Nacional de Energía) for 2.2TWh of power.
The company will develop a mix of renewable projects which include 116MW of solar, 93MW of wind and 33MW of geothermal capacities in the country.
Enel plans to produce up to 1.18TWh of clean energy per year, which will be supplied to Chilean distribution companies.
Image: Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet inaugurating the solar plant. Photo: Courtesy of PRESIDENCIA DE LA REPÚBLICA DE CHILE.