Chile's Cerro Dominador CSP project lands new PPA

Chilean power company Sociedad Austral de Electricidad Sociedad Anonima (SAESA) has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) to procure up to 600 GWh per year from the Cerro Dominador solar complex.

Cerro Dominador, the owner of the namesake photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) plant, said the eight-year PPA came into force on August 1 and will run until December 31, 2028.

Latin America's first CSP plant will generate electricity that the SAESA group will then supply to its unregulated customers.

The sprawling complex is located in the middle of the Atacama Desert. It consists of a 100-MW PV park, already in commercial operation, and 10,600 heliostats to produce 110 MW of CSP.

The CSP plant, featuring a central tower receiver with a thermal storage system in molten salts, is slated to come online this year.

In the first half of 2020, Cerro Dominador reached several milestones, including raising and installing the solar receiver and completing the salt melting process.

In 2019, the mega-project was awarded a PPA in a tender process held by Chilean oil and energy group Copec SA.

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