Zelestra Clinches $282m Financing for 220-MW Aurora Solar-Storage Hybrid Project

• Spanish developer Zelestra reaches financial close on the 220-MW Aurora solar-plus-storage project in Chile’s Tarapacá desert after securing USD 282 million in debt financing.

Spanish renewable-energy specialist Zelestra has reached financial close on its Aurora hybrid solar-plus-storage complex in northern Chile, locking in USD 282 million in project debt that will carry the scheme through construction and into commercial operation. The financing package, arranged with a syndicate of international and Chilean lenders, was signed on Monday, 30 June, and allows the company to draw funds immediately as civil works ramp up on site.

Located in the sun-soaked Tarapacá Region, Aurora will pair a 220-MW dc photovoltaic array with a 1-GWh liquid-cooled battery energy-storage system supplied by Sungrow. Together, the assets are expected to deliver roughly 600 GWh of clean electricity each year, enough to meet the annual demand of about 200,000 Chilean households while shaving an estimated 430,000 tonnes of CO₂ from the country’s carbon ledger. Construction is already under way, and Zelestra is targeting full commissioning by late-2026.

The hybrid design is tailored to a long-term power-purchase agreement signed earlier this year with LPG supplier Abastible, which will take daytime PV output as well as night-time discharge from the battery portfolio. By smoothing deliveries over a 24-hour cycle, the PPA structure underpins project bankability and helps Chile’s grid operator address its growing “duck-curve” imbalance caused by midday solar surpluses. Zelestra notes that Aurora also benefits from grid-connection rights on the northern section of the National Electric System, where congestion is less acute than in central Chile.

Chile has become Latin America’s test bed for large-scale storage hybrids. The country’s installed PV capacity surpassed 11 GW in 2024, making solar the single largest contributor to its electricity mix at more than 22 percent. Policymakers now aim to combine that momentum with batteries to reach a 70-percent share of renewables by 2030 and to retire all coal units by 2040.

For Zelestra, Aurora is the company’s flagship project in South America and pushes its contracted pipeline in the region past 1.7 GW. Chief executive Sofía Morales said the close “confirms that well-structured hybrids can still attract competitive capital, even in a higher-rate world,” adding that the group expects to follow with additional solar-storage deals in Peru and Brazil within the next 12 months.