A joint venture (JV) between EDF and developer AME has begun construction of large-scale battery and solar photovoltaic (PV) projects in Chile, with 2GWh storage capacity.
The JV, Generadora Metropolitano, announced last week (21 November) that construction has officially begun on the two-project, 186-hectare portfolio, Dune Plus, with financing and offtake contracts secured.
Located in María Elena, Antofagasta, in the Latin American country’s share of the Atacama Desert, which straddles the border with Argentina, Dune Plus comprises:
- Dune, a 333.5MW, 4-hour duration (1,334MWh) standalone battery energy storage system (BESS).
- La Pampina, a 186MWp solar PV plant with a 175.5MW, 4-hour duration (702MWh) BESS.
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Total storage capacity will therefore be 509MW/2036MWh. The site will feature 150 transformers.
In April, Generadora Metropolitano announced that a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) had been signed with Chilean mining company Codelco for the supply of 100% renewable energy from the Dune Plus facilities.
The PPA term begins January 2026 and will cover the supply of 1,000GWh of electricity each year to power Codelco’s mining operations. The company has awarded more than 3,000GWh of annual contracts for renewables in the past two years and is targeting 100% electricity supply from renewable sources by 2030.
The Atacama Desert region has some of the highest annual solar irradiation levels in the world, making it a prime location for solar PV development and has enabled Chile to become one of the leading adopters of the technology in Latin America.
In turn, this has led to the adoption of energy storage technologies, primarily for energy shifting applications and with typical durations of 4-hour or 5-hour.
At the Energy Storage Summit Latin America 2025 in September, Ana Lía Rojas, executive director at the Chilean renewable energy and energy storage association (ACERA), said that in 2024, 2.2TWh of new solar PV generation was added to the national grid, but curtailment of solar increased by 2.7TWh.
Chile is adopting energy storage technologies so quickly that then-energy minister Diego Pardow Lorenzo said at the summit, hosted by our publisher Solar Media in the national capital Santiago, that the country will surpass its 2GW by 2030 BESS deployment policy target by January next year, and its 2050 target of 6GW by 2027.
The Antofagasta region, meanwhile, is rich in mineral wealth and one of the world’s most significant mining areas for copper and lithium.
Generadora Metropolitano launched with the acquisition of four backup power plants from AES Gener, the regional subsidiary of AES Corporation, in 2018. Two diesel-fired power plants in that portfolio have since been closed. The company, now focused on low-carbon technologies has to date developed four PV plants in the country with 1,030MW total generation capacity.
Dune Plus marks the first battery storage projects for the JV between French state-owned power company EDF and Chilean developer AME.
Financing for Dune Plus has been closed with backing from international banks BNP Paribas Securities, Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, MUFG, Societe General and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, under a non-recourse project finance structure. Another bank, Banco de Crédito e Inversiones, granted a loan for Value Added Tax (VAT).
