Largest solar plant in Latin America to be built

Global solar energy services provider SunEdison has signed an agreement with the Chilean mining and steel group CAP to construct what is expected to be the largest solar photovoltaic power plant in Latin America and one of the largest in the world.

The plant is designed to have an installed capacity of 100MW (DC) and will be located in the Atacama Desert of Chile and CAP hopes it will produce as much as 15 per cent of the mining group's power needs.

Pancho Pérez, SunEdison General Manager for EMEA, Latin America and North Asia, said: “We are very pleased to add the CAP group to our customer portfolio. We have worked to deliver an innovative solution to CAP designed to reduce their energy costs while deriving up to 15 percent of their electricity supply from clean energy."

The plant will be built using SunEdison technology including more than 300,000 Silvantis™ monocrystalline silicon modules made from non-toxic, non-polluting material that can be recycled at the end of tehir useful life, together with solar trackers designed by SunEdison made of steel produced by CAP.

Jaime Charles, CAP group CEO, said: "This agreement serves to reaffirm CAP's commitment to innovation and sustainable development in Chile, by using state-of-the-art technology to meet the renewable energy goals set by the Chilean Government.

“SunEdison's track record and long-term commitment to projects were key factors in selecting this company as our partner on this initiative."

Once completed, the project will be managed by the SunEdison Renewable Operations Center, which provides round the clock monitoring and management services to photovoltaic installations around the world.

During the first year of operations the plant is expected to generate 270GWh of clean energy, avoiding the emission of over 135,000 tones of CO2/year into the atmosphere, which is the equivalent of withdrawing over 30,000 cars from circulation.