Chile inaugurates largest floating solar plant in Southern Cone

With a capacity of 1,090 kWp and comprised of 1,998 solar panels installed on 2,493 floats on a dam by Solarity, this initiative will supply approximately 40% of the electricity required by Verfrut's Quilamuta estate.

In a shift toward renewable energy, agriculture company Verfrut, together with Solarity, inaugurated the largest floating solar plant in the Southern Cone, in the Las Cabras Municipality in Chile’s O’Higgins Region.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by Chile’s Minister of Agriculture, Esteban Valenzuela, and Minister of Energy, Diego Pardow.

Renewable Power Plant

With a capacity of 1,090 kWp and comprised of 1,998 solar panels installed on 2,493 floats on a dam, this initiative will supply approximately 40% of the electricity required by the estate.

Horacio Melo, CEO of Solarity, noted that the installed capacity will make a significant contribution to Verfrut’s sustainability and decarbonization targets. «This solar plant delivers efficient and affordable power, and we plan to expand it with batteries to achieve a 100% clean energy supply 24 hours a day,» Melo said to Chilean newspaper La Tercera.

Javier Martínez, CEO of Verfrut, highlighted the space efficiency of the floating solar plant, which optimizes resources and reduces evaporation from the dam. «This initiative enables us to address water scarcity in a more effective way,» he said.

Minister of Energy, Diego Pardow, noted that although agriculture and energy production have entered into a competition of sorts for land, «this project demonstrates that through the use of new technologies and innovation, it is possible to overcome this issue. The inauguration of the Quilamuta plant is excellent news for agricultural activity in the O’Higgins Region and is in line with our goal of being a carbon-neutral country by 2050.»

«It enables us to resolve issues such as a lack of space, increasing efficiency in the use of water resources and reserving fertile land for a sustainable food future that is less dependent on fossil fuels,» said Minister of Agriculture, Esteban Valenzuela.

«Initiatives such as these provide more options to farmers to face the climate-change-driven drought, as well as to increase the competitiveness and resilience of production systems by reducing energy costs,» he added.

Chile is the most attractive place to invest in renewable energy in Latin America, thanks to its natural resources, government involvement, and the use of global partnerships.