ACCIONA Energía’s plan to install a 1GWh battery energy storage system (BESS) at its 238MWp Malgarida photovoltaic complex reflects a broader shift in Chile’s solar-heavy power market: the need to convert daytime oversupply into flexible, dispatchable capacity.
With Chile’s central grid repeatedly facing midday curtailment due to high solar penetration, long-duration storage is emerging as a structural requirement rather than a technical add-on.
The Malgarida installation, rated at 200MW/1GWh and expected online in early 2027, positions itself among Latin America’s largest utility-scale batteries. Its five-hour duration places it well above the typical two-hour systems deployed across North America and Europe, signaling a strategic response to Chile’s widening gap between daytime generation peaks and evening demand. By enabling 200MW of continuous discharge across multiple hours, the system provides a capacity profile suited to mitigating the “duck curve” dynamics increasingly observed in the Atacama region.
ACCIONA Energía currently operates 922MW of installed capacity in Chile, spanning three wind farms and five solar plants, including the 246MWp El Romero facility. This portfolio gives the company both the generation footprint and the operational visibility to pursue storage as a grid-balancing mechanism. The conditions in northern Chile, abundant solar resources paired with grid congestion, underscore the rationale. Without storage, PV assets experience high curtailment rates, eroding project economics and weakening the reliability of renewable integration.
The company’s decision to link the BESS directly to Malgarida addresses a recurring structural challenge: the temporal mismatch between when the Atacama’s solar resource peaks and when Chile’s consumption surges. Coupling storage with an existing solar plant allows excess midday output to be captured and shifted, reducing fossil-based generation during evening peaks and supporting grid operators facing increasing variability.
ACCIONA Energía’s parallel development pipeline—three additional BESS projects totaling 1.5GWh to be co-located with its photovoltaic assets—signals confidence in Chile’s policy direction, as the government continues to emphasize flexibility services and system stability. While declining storage costs improve project viability, the business case still depends on market signals that reward flexibility, such as capacity payments, arbitrage opportunities, and ancillary service revenues. The feasibility of long-duration systems, in particular, rests on whether regulatory frameworks evolve to reflect the value of multi-hour shifting.
At the system level, utility-scale batteries like Malgarida are becoming essential as Chile moves toward higher renewable penetration. Solar accounts for nearly 25% of the country’s electricity matrix, and curtailment in northern Chile has risen sharply in recent years. Storage not only mitigates waste but also reduces reliance on gas-fired generation during peak hours and enhances frequency and voltage stability in regions with limited transmission headroom.
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