President inaugurates Gran Teno photovoltaic plant that will supply 136,000 homes
The solar plant located in the Maule Region is the largest in Chile’s south-central zone.
Clean energy continues to make headway in Chile, and excellent news has now been announced for the Maule Region. President Gabriel Boric has inaugurated the Gran Teno photovoltaic plant, which will supply electricity to more than 136,000 homes.
The solar plant will provide renewable energy, and avoid the emission of 147,000 tons of CO2 per year. Given its size, it will also become the most important plant in Chile’s south-central zone, and the largest in the world at such a southern latitude.
It is being developed by Grenergy Renovables. President Boric emphasized that the project “shows that it is possible to move towards a cleaner and more sustainable future, to such an extent that all of the different stakeholders commit to them.”
In this sense, the president highlighted that Chile has been classified as the most attractive country to invest in renewable energy in Latin America, and one of the 15 most attractive in the world: “This is something that is being demonstrated here with this tremendous investment, and is enhanced by the investments being made in the Atacama Region.”
Characteristics of the Gran Teno photovoltaic plant
The Gran Teno plant was built by Grenergy Renovables and its subsidiary GR Algarrobo SpA. It has a nominal generation power of 200 MW, which is injected into the National Electric System (SEN).
It is comprised of 367,200 solar panels (221,400 of 655 W and 145,800 of 660 W) over an area of 381.7 hectares (943 acres), and has a service life of 30 years.
The president concluded by recalling that Chile’s legal objective is to be carbon neutral by 2050: “As I always say, I have no doubt that we will get there sooner. We are the second country in the world to commit to it, if I’m not mistaken, after Palau, and there are now many other countries following the same path.”