IPP ContourGlobal has put a solar-plus-storage project in Chile with a 6.5-hour BESS into commercial operation in Chile.
The Victor Jara project in Tarapacá combines 231MW of solar PV with a 200MW/1.3GWh battery energy storage system (BESS), enabling maximum power output for 6.5 hours.
ContourGlobal said it is among the longest-duration utility-scale BESS projects in the world and the longest-duration project currently operating in Latin America.
The Victor Jara project has a 15-year night-only power purchase agreement (PPA) with utility Copec EMOAC, which has been active in procuring power from other co-located BESS projects. The solar PV production is shifted into the late afternoon nighttime using the BESS.
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James Lee Stancampiano, ContourGlobal’s general manager for South America, said: “The idea that the sun from the Tarapacá desert can light Chilean homes at night is not just a technical achievement — it’s a powerful illustration of where we want to take Chile’s energy system.”
The project was acquired from developer and IPP Grenergy, along with the Quillagua 1 and Quillagua 2 in Antofogasta, which total 221MW of solar and 1.2GWh of BESS.
At the time of acquisition these were the first three phases of Grenergy’s Oasis de Atacama collection of projects, which has seven phases totalling 4GW of solar PV and 11GWh of storage, being developed and sold to different companies. The fourth phase (272MW of solar, 1.1GWh BESS) was sold to investor CVC late last year.
Chile has become a hotbed of large-scale BESS activity as companies deploy BESS to shift solar PV production into night time hours, mitigating curtailment and negative pricing risk.
BESS projects have been completed by IPPs and power firms Zelestra, Innergex and Engie totalling around 1.5GWh of BESS capacity in the past few months alone. In April, investor Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners started building one of that size.
The Oasis de Atacama projects have been supplied (so far) by both CATL and BYD, while Grenergy recently enlisted BYD for its second portfolio of projects, Oasis Central.
ContourGlobal’s global BESS strategy and development manager Maria Cuadrado was a speaker on the ‘Product Selection, Quality, and Underperformance in Battery Storage Projects’ discussion at the Energy Storage Summit 2026 in London in February. See the full video recording with a subscription to ESN Premium here.
Our publisher Solar Media, part of Informa Connect, will host the Energy Storage Summit Latin America 2026 on 27-28 October, 2026, in Santiago Chile. Use our discount code ESN20 for 20% off tickets.
