Santiago Metro to Be 60% Powered by Solar Energy

SunPower Corporation has signed a power purchase agreement for the supply of 300 gigawatt hours per year of solar energy to the Santiago Metro, which serves 2.2 million rail passengers per day in Chile's capital city. SunPower will supply the subway with electricity from a 100-megawatt (AC) solar power plant that will provide up to 60% of its energy requirements.

Power for the railway will be generated from the El Pelícano Solar Project, near the municipalities of La Higuera (Coquimbo Region) and Vallenar (Atacama Region). Construction of the solar power plant will begin this year, with operations expected to commence by the end of 2017.

SunPower will design and build the project and provide operations and maintenance upon its completion. The system will be a fully integrated modular solar power block engineered for rapid deployment of utility-scale solar energy. Among the technology's features is robotic solar panel cleaning capability that uses 75% less water than traditional cleaning methods and can help improve system performance by up to 15%, according to SunPower.

"Solar is an ideal energy source for Chile because of the country's high solar resource and transparent energy policies," says Eduardo Medina, SunPower executive vice president, global power plants.

Santiago's underground rapid transit system, which began operations in 1975, is among the most modern in Latin America and is second in size only to the Mexico City Metro, with five lines, 108 stations and 103 kilometers of track.