(February 12, 2016) Enel Green Power has started building the innovative 1.7 MW La Silla solar photovoltaic plant in northern Chile, named after the neighbouring astronomical observatory it will supply with its clean energy. The PV project and the observatory are located on a mountain near La Higuera, a town in the Coquimbo region that is on the outskirts of the Atacama Desert, 600 km north of the capital city Santiago. La Silla will be the first utility-scale PV plant in the world to combine the use of smart and bifacial modules with conventional modules for side-by-side testing, during which the performances of the innovative technologies will be compared to those of the conventional panels in the same site. The use of innovative panels is expected to increase power generation at the facility by between 5% and 10% compared to a conventional PV plant of equal size. The new facility, which has a long-term power purchase agreement with the La Silla astronomical observatory, will deliver its energy to Chile’s Central Region Interconnected System (SIC). Once fully operational, the PV plant will be able to generate approximately 4.75 GWh each year, equivalent to the electricity needs of approximately 2,000 households and more than 50% of the observatory’s annual power consumption. The clean energy generated by the PV plant will avoid the emission of over 2,000 tonnes of CO2. (Peg)
