Chile's Cerro Dominador scraps CSP plan for 500 MW of PV

Chile-based solar energy producer Cerro Dominador has secured environmental approval to scrap plans for a 110-MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant, and build a 500-MW PV complex in its place at a site in the Chilean region of Antofagasta.

Back in late 2014, the company filed an environmental impact statement (EIS) seeking a permit to install a 110-MW CSP plant with 15 hours of storage and a 100-MW PV farm in the Sierra Gorda commune as part of the Planta Solar Atacama 2 project. At the time, investment in the project was estimated at USD 1.2 billion (EUR 1.11bn)

The EIS for Planta Solar Atacama 2 was deemed favourable in 2015.

Since then, Cerro Dominador modified the project and filed an updated EIS in March 2021. In the new proposal, the CSP portion of the project was eliminated in favour of 500 MW of PV, while the original plan for a 100-MW PV plant remained unchanged.

Investment costs of the now 600-MW project are expected to total USD 360 million, according to the new EIS.

The whole project was also renamed, and Cerro Dominador now wants it known as Pampa Union Solar Plant instead of Atacama 2.

The updated EIS was approved last week.

The company is best known as the owner and operator of the 210-MW Cerro Dominador PV and CSP generation complex in Antofagasta. Last year, Cerro Dominador was granted an environmental permit to increase the size of its Likana CSP project in Chile to 690 MW from 450 MW.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.927)

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