Spanish developer and independent power producer (IPP) Zelestra has reached financial close for its hybrid 1GWh BESS and 220MW solar PV plant in Chile.
The company secured US$282 million in financing from financial entities Natixis CIB and BNP Paribas, with a VAT facility granted by BCI.
Located in the northern region of Tarapacá, the Aurora project’s construction is already underway with Zelestra’s own engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) division building the hybrid project.
Once operational, the project will deliver power to gas provider Abastible through a solar-plus-storage power purchase agreement (PPA), which was signed earlier this year.
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Leo Moreno, CEO of Zelestra, said: “Aurora is a landmark transaction for Zelestra and reinforces the financial community’s confidence in our customer-first strategy to develop multi-technology solutions that deliver for our clients. This is a very ambitious project that includes one of the largest battery storage projects in Latin America. With construction already underway, we are now focused on delivering the project on-time and on-budget.”
The financing comes shortly after the company secured a BESS procurement agreement with Chinese renewables company Sungrow for the project.
In May, Zelestra ordered 1GWh of BESS technology plus PCS equipment from Sungrow, which will provide its PowerTitan 2.0 BESS and its new 1+X modular inverter for the solar PV plant. The BESS units are expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2025.
This project is one of many solar-plus-storage projects currently being developed in Chile, which has seen an accelerated growth of BESS capacity reaching commercial operations in the past few months. In April of this year, Chile was among the leading countries globally in BESS deployment (Premium access) for the month, along with China and Australia.
Chile recently surpassed 1GW of BESS installed, after IPP Atlas Renewable Energy inaugurated its 200MW/800MWh BESS project in April.
More recently, Spanish IPP Grenergy unveiled that it planned to build a 3.8GWh BESS and 1.1GW solar PV project in Central Chile, in a move to replicate the model of its 2GW/11GWh hybrid solar-plus-storage Oasis de Atacama project.
Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 4th annual Energy Storage Summit Latin America in Santiago, Chile, 14-15 October 2025. This year’s events bring together Latin America’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, network operators, EPCs and more, all in one place to discuss the landscape of energy storage in the region. Visit the official site for more info.
