Spanish independent power producer (IPP) Grenergy has secured a senior non-recourse financing agreement worth US$270 million for Phase 6 of its flagship Chilean solar-plus-storage project, Oasis de Atacama.
Located in the northern Chilean region of Atacama, the financing will help towards the deployment of 3.5GWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity in the sixth phase, dubbed Elena. The project currently has 77MW of solar PV operational, while the financing is aimed at starting the installation of the BESS to store the electricity generated by the PV plant, but also from the grid.
It also comes mere days after the Spanish IPP sold the fourth phase of the project to infrastructure investor CVC DIF, a subsidiary of asset manager CVC, for up to US$475 million. It has alread sold the first three phases of the project—which total 451MW of operational solar PV and 2.5GWh of BESS—to ContourGlobal, a subsidiary of private equity firm KKR.
This latest financing for the Oasis de Atacama was led by international financial institutions with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) as the structuring bank, and includes BNP Paribas, BBVA and KfW. In total, Grenergy secured more than US$1.2 billion in non-recourse financing for the Oasis de Atacama project, which comprises 2GW of solar PV and 11GWh of BESS.
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David Ruiz de Andrés, CEO of Grenergy, said: “This operation reinforces the confidence of international banks in our hybrid model and the soundness of our strategic plan. Elena is not only the largest phase of the Oasis de Atacama megaproject, but also an example of the excellent execution of our EPC teams. With the accelerated installation of batteries, we are maximising the value of the project by taking advantage of market opportunities during non-solar hours, consolidating our leadership in large-scale energy storage.”
The batteries for the Elena portion of the Oasis de Atacama project will be provided by the energy storage arm of the Chinese battery and electric vehicle (EV) maker BYD. The companies signed a 3.5GWh supply agreement in May for the project, which built on a previous agreement reached in 2024 for the supply of the third phase of Oasis de Atacama. In total, BYD will provide more than half of the total battery storage capacity for the Oasis de Atacama project.
For the Elena part of the project, BYD will provide a total of 6,240 units of its MC Cube T model, which are equivalent to 624 containers. According to Grenergy, this agreement represents the largest supply of batteries in Latin America and the second largest one globally.
As the company continues to bring online phases of the Oasis de Atacama project, it aims to replicate its flagship solar-plus-storage model with two other projects, one in Central Chile and another in Spain. This is part of the company’s plan to invest €3.5 billion in the coming years to increase its energy storage and hybrid portfolio.
The hybrid project in Chile is expected to be operational by 2027 and will comprise 1.1GW of solar PV and 3.8GWh of BESS, while the Spanish project, called Escuderos, is expected to have 200MW of solar PV and 704MWh of BESS. Construction of the Escuderos project is targeted to begin in the second half of 2025.
