Vast Chilean project will be brought online in seven phases over coming years with 11GWh total capacity, says developer.
A vast battery project in Chile’s Atacama Desert has received a boost as it secures fresh financing from investment giants including France’s BNP Paribas and Société Générale.
Spanish developer Grenergy announced today that it has closed an additional $299m in financing for its Oasis de Atacama project in northern Chile.
It said it has signed a non-recourse green loan for the third phase of the project with BNP Paribas and Société Générale, fellow French investor Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia and Japan’s SMBC.
“This milestone reaffirms the trust of leading international institutions in our solid business model and our ability to develop large-scale innovative projects,” said Grenergy executive chair David Ruiz de Andrés.
The third phase of Oasis de Atacama includes 230 MW of solar capacity and 1.3GWh of energy storage, said Grenergy.
All three financed phases of the project comprise 451MW of solar capacity and 2.5GWh of storage. In total, Oasis de Atacama comprises seven phases with a total capacity of 11GWh and nearly 2GW of solar capacity.
This will make it the “world’s largest battery energy storage system,” claims Grenergy.
Grenergy has previously said the project has attracted $2.3bn in investment. It says the project will generate around 5.5TWh of annual energy, saving around 1.4 million tons of CO2.
The project's first phase will be connected in the coming weeks, said Grenergy, with the remaining phases scheduled between 2025 and 2026.
Should Grenergy come close to hitting the 11GWh of total capacity this will comfortably eclipse the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California, which has been said to be the world’s largest current battery energy storage facility at 3GWh.
Oasis de Atacama is not however the world's largest energy storage project, a title that likely goes to a gargantuan 90GWh thermal storage facility being developed in Finland.
It is also not as large as some pumped hydro facilities, including the 40GWh Fengning pumped storage hydropower plant in China, which is said to be the world’s largest.
The importance of energy storage in the energy transition has never been greater, with dozens of countries having in the last year signed up to a pledge of hitting 1.5TW of capacity by 2030, six times today’s levels. That target is seen as crucial to supporting a global target of hitting 11TW of renewables capacity by 2030.
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