AES has seen a hybrid wind, solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Chile receive an environmental permit, while Oenergy has suffered a setback for a standalone project.
Updates for both projects were recently posted by the Environmental Assessment Service (Servicio de Evaluación Ambiental or SEA) of Chile, where the grid-scale energy storage market is booming. Executives from AES and Oenergy will be speaking at our publisher Solar Media’s Energy Storage Summit Latin America in Santiago in just over a month’s time.
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AES receives environmental permit
AES Andes said last month (27 August) that it has received an Environmental Qualification Resolution (RCA) for its Pampas Hybrid Park, which will combine wind, solar and a BESS. It expects it to start construction in the first half of 2025.
Pampas will combine 140MW of wind, 252MW of solar PV and a BESS with a power rating of 624MW and a 5-hour duration, meaning a total energy storage capacity of 3,120MWh, AES said. That would make it one of the largest BESS under construction in the world, should the timeline be stuck to.
The SEA’s RCA filing for the project yesterday (9 September) said that AES Andes plans to invest US$800 million in the project, although gave a different size for the BESS project, of 200MW/1,000MWh.
The BESS may either have been reduced in size or the remaining capacity could be filed under a different project entity; the SEA originally listed the BESS as 624MW, and still does on the project’s registry homepage. A US$800 million investment would be low for a 3,120MWh BESS, let alone one co-located with 392MW of renewable generation.
The US-headquartered utility and independent power producer (IPP) said the project will enable renewable energy to be stored during periods of greater availability and provided to the electricity market at times of highest demand. It will be located in the Antofagasta region, northern Chile, which lies within the larger Atacama desert.
The environmental impact assessment (EIA) for it was kicked off by AES back in February 2023, as reported by Energy-Storage.news at the time.
Read the full RCA filing here (in Spanish).
Oenergy: water concerns sink project
In contrasting news, developer and IPP Oenergy has had a standalone BESS of 60MW/328MWh refused by the SEA. Its project is in a different part of the Atacama region, but still within the Atacama desert.
Oenergy’s Halcon 5 BESS project proposed the construction of the energy storage plant and a 110kV high voltage transmission line 0.29km in length, as well as a booster substation, with a total investment of US$104.9 million.
However, concerns around the project’s impact on local water quality were not adequately addressed in the company’s EIA report and the project’s current status is now listed as ‘Refused’ on the SEA website. There is no filing detailing or confirming the refusal but there are responses listing the potential reasons why it hasn’t been approved.
A statement from the general directorate for water (Dirección General de Aguas or DGA) for the Atacama region read:
“On the other hand, during the evaluation process of the EIA of the project ‘Transmission Line and BESS Halcón 5 Power Plant’ and according to what was indicated in the DGA ORD No. 39 of January 19, 2024, the [project] owner did not provide the necessary information to evaluate whether the planned works would generate an impact on the water dynamics of the sector where they will be executed.
“By not presenting the information previously requested, the opportunities to evaluate in depth how the project could affect the water resources of the sector were limited.”
Gigawatts of large-scale BESS in Chile are coming online over the next few years, with arbitrage opportunities driven by some of the highest price spreads in the world and new capacity market opportunities recently codified by the government.
