TL;DR
ContourGlobal has inaugurated a $500 million solar power and storage facility in Chile’s Atacama Desert that provides 200 megawatts of power for up to 6.5 hours at night. Chile has 3,072 MW of battery storage and expects an additional 5,400 MW by December 2026.
KKR-backed independent power producer ContourGlobal, a It is close to 500 million dollars A solar power and storage facility in Chile’s Atacama Desert that stores solar energy during the day and delivers it after sunset. The Viktor Jara hybrid plant combines 231 megawatt-peak photovoltaic capacity with 1.3 gigawatt-hours of battery storage and is capable of delivering 200 megawatts of power for up to 6.5 hours at night. ContourGlobal calls it Latin America’s longest running utility-scale battery system.
The project is located in the Tarapacá region and is supported by a 15-year night power purchase agreement with Copec EMOAC, the energy marketing and renewable energy supply arm of Empresas Copec, one of Chile’s largest industrial conglomerates. This is ContourGlobal’s second solar and storage investment in Chile, following last year’s launch of a similar system in Quillagua in the neighboring Antofagasta region. Together, the two projects provide 452 megawatt-peaks of solar power and 2.5 gigawatt-hours of battery storage.
Why Atacama?
The Atacama Desert has the highest solar radiation on Earth, making it one of the world’s most productive locations for photovoltaic production. The problem is that the sun produces more electricity during the day than Chile’s grid can absorb, resulting in regular downtime from solar plants that are forced to shut down because there is no room for electricity, wasted energy. Transmission barriers between the solar-rich north and demand centers further south exacerbate the problem.
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Battery storage solves this by absorbing excess solar energy during the day and discharging it at night, effectively converting an intermittent power source into dispatchable power. Solar-plus-storage projects are increasingly being designed to serve around-the-clock power needs, including growing demand from data centers that require constant, predictable supply.
James Lee Stancampiano, senior manager for South America at ContourGlobal, said Chile is the place to be in Latin America, citing the country’s regulatory framework, growing electricity demand and pipeline of renewable energy and storage investments. The company is evaluating additional projects in Chile, including developments near the capital Santiago and wind projects in central and southern regions.
Storage boom in numbers
According to national grid operator Coordinador Electrico Nacional (CEN), Chile currently has 3,072 megawatts of battery energy storage capacity either in operation or under testing, with most of the projects concentrated in the Atacama Desert. CEN plans to commission an additional 5,400 megawatts of storage capacity by December 2026. Battery energy storage systems currently account for approximately 42% of Chile’s energy project pipeline by capacity, the largest single category.
The investment does not come from one player. AES Andes, Engie Energía Chile and Enel Green Power Chile all have storage projects in the country. Atlas Renewable Energy, backed by BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners, secured $510 million in financing last year for the hybrid Estepa project, one of Chile’s largest solar and storage projects. Spanish developer Grenergy is building the Oasis de Atacama complex and describes it as such. the world’s largest solar-plus storage project.
Mining, data centers and demand drivers
What sets Chile apart from other solar-rich markets is its industrial demand profile. Producing about a quarter of the world’s copper and a significant amount of lithium, the country’s mining sector is one of the most energy-intensive sectors on the planet. Mines operate around the clock and need reliable, predictable power. They are also under increasing pressure from customers, regulators and investors to decarbonize their operations.
Antonio Cammisecra, CEO of ContourGlobal, said the presence of a highly energy-intensive industrial base, particularly mining, is driving demand for reliable, long-term renewable energy. He described storage as a technology that shifts renewables from intermittent sources to programmable energy solutions, a transformation he calls essential to lower system costs, accelerate decarbonization and replace traditional generation at scale.
Data centers are a growing demand driver. The global push to electrify everythingfrom industrial processes to AI computing, creating new markets for renewable energy around the clock. ContourGlobal anticipates growing demand from data centers that need large amounts of 24/7 electricity, and Chile’s combination of cheap solar power, storage infrastructure and political stability make it a viable location for facilities that would otherwise be built in the US or northern Europe.
A model that can scale globally
Chile’s approach, building large solar capacity in the desert, combining it with battery storage and selling the power at night under long-term contracts, is a model closely followed by other solar-rich regions. The economy is attractive. Solar energy production costs continue to fallbattery prices have fallen by nearly 90% over the past decade, and the combination of the two is now competitive with or cheaper than the new gas-powered generation in most markets.
The 15-year overnight PPA structure used by ContourGlobal is particularly noteworthy. It de-risks the battery investment by guaranteeing revenue for the discharge period, the storage component can be financed on the project’s financial terms rather than merchant risk. This is the type of contractual innovation that unlocks institutional capital to sustain scale.
Hybrid renewable energy projects becomes the standard rather than the exception. Chile’s Atacama Desert is the most advanced laboratory for this transition. By the end of 2026, the country will have more than 8,400 megawatts of battery capacity online, enough to make it one of the world’s largest storage markets, built in a desert that until recently was mostly known for astronomy and copper.
