Chilean president cuts ribbon on 170-MW Sonnedix Atacama solar farm

• Sonnedix Power Holdings Ltd on Sunday officially inaugurated its 170-MW solar farm in Chile in the visibility of Chilean head of state Sebastian Pinera, energy minister Juan Carlos Jobet as well as Tarapaca local authorities.

The Sonnedix Atacama plant, located in Tarapaca's section of the Atacama Desert, is the firm's biggest solar PV farm to day, the independent power manufacturer (IPP) claimed.

Spending over USD 180 million (EUR 151.4 m) in the project, Sonnedix installed around 500,000 solar mono panels, installed 48 central inverters and also linked the plant to the grid via two substations.

Sonnedix Atacama is anticipated to create abour 470 GWh per year, or enough to power over 200,000 Chilean residences.

Construction at the site began in June 2019. JinkoSolar Holding Co Ltd (NYSE: JKS) supplied the panels, which were installed on NX Horizon clever trackers from Nextracker Inc, while Spain's Power Electronics supplied the inverters.

The design, purchase and construction (EPC) agreement was granted to METKA EGN, while Chile's Transelec SA built the transmission centers which it will certainly take care of throughout the life of the Sonnedix Atacama plant.

Last year, Sonnedix authorized a lasting power purchase contract (PPA) with Chilean copper mining company Compania Minera Dona Ines de Collahuasi SCM covering 150 GWh/year of the plant's output.

Since establishing its visibility in Chile in 2015, Sonnedix has expanded to operate 12 solar PV farms with a combined capability of 229 MW. Its existing portfolio of establishing projects in Chile exceeds 700 MW, the IPP added.