Chile’s cumulative installed PV power surpassed 1.8 GW at the end of November 2017, according to the December Monthly Report on Renewables published by the country’s National Energy Commission (CNE).

During the month of November, new PV installations totaling 33 MW were connected to the Chilean grid. In November 2016, new PV power reached around 76 MW, while in October 2017, no new facilities were registered.

As for the newly installed PV power in the first 11 months of 2017, the CNE reports that around 761 MW of new connections for power generators were registered.

Meanwhile, the number of PV plants under test fell from 305 MW at the end of October, to 299 MW at the end of the following month, while the combined capacity of PV facilities under construction remained unchanged at 281 MW.

The total power of PV projects already approved by local environmental authority, SEA increased from 15,623 MW to 15,628 MW, while projects still in the qualification phase rose from 7,553 MW to 7,566 MW.

Popular content

Furthermore, the report reveals that, during the month of December, the SEA granted only one new Environmental Qualification Resolution (RCA) favorable to a PV project, the 5.5 MW Guadalupe Plant, which was proposed by Guadalupe Solar Spa. This $5.6 million plant will very likely have access to the scheme for medium-sized distributed generation PMGD.

In October, the SEA approved six new potential PV project candidates for the PMGD program for a total of 54 MW.

Under the PMDG program, which is supporting projects up to 9 MW in size, PV plant owners are granted stabilized prices that are higher than spot market prices, because they are calculated by the Chilean national Energy Commission (CNE) with a mid-term perspective.