ACCIONA Energía Chile has been awarded 506 GWh per year of electricity output for 20 years in the biggest energy tender called to date by the Chilean Administration. The tender was open to renewable and conventional technologies. ACCIONA will build a 183-MW wind farm to meet the output won at auction.
The new wind farm, San Gabriel, will be located 5 km east of the town of Renaico in the region of La Araucanía. Its renewable electricity will be sufficient to supply 250,000 homes in Chile while avoiding the emission of 486,000 metric tons of CO2 a year from coal-fired power stations.
ACCIONA was awarded the new output in the National Electricity Commission’s largest energy tender to date, in which 84 national and international companies took part.
“The result of the tender once again highlights the fact that our renewables-based solutions are very competitive, even against conventional technologies,” says José Ignacio Escobar, General Manager of ACCIONA Energia Chile. “It reaffirms ACCIONA’s commitment to participate in Chile’s development based on sustainable economic, social and environmental parameters.”
To deliver the new output, ACCIONA will sign contracts with the electric power distribution companies that operate in the Central Interconnected System and the Northern Power Grid to supply customers subject to price regulation. The two systems account for more than 90% of electricity production in Chile.
The electricity output awarded to ACCIONA came under block 3 of the National Electricity Commission’s tender. It will require round-the-clock generation between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2041.
The energy auction, called by the National Energy Commission in May 2015, attracted bids from 84 national and international companies, with 82% corresponding to renewables and the remaining 18% to conventional technologies. The total energy offered for tender was 12,430 GWh/year, equivalent to around 30% of the consumption of regulated market customers from 2021.
In Chile’s first auction for renewable and conventional power, in December 2014, ACCIONA was also awarded supply contracts totalling 600 GWh/year for 2018 to 2032.
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