Italian energy company Enel and its Chilean unit Enel Chile have agreed to divest four Chilean solar plants totalling 416 MW for $550 million to renewable energy producer Sonnedix. Enel Chile and its parent company will respectively sell their 99.991 per cent and 0.001 per cent stakes in Arcadia Generación Solar, which owns the plants. The sale awaits the approval of the Chilean antitrust regulator, Fiscalía Nacional Económica.
The solar plants are located in the Atacama and Antofagasta regions of northern Chile. They include the 36MW Diego de Almagro, which has been operating since 2014, the 97 MW Carrera Pinto and the 79 MW Pampa Solar Norte, both operating since 2016, as well as the 204 MW Domeyko, which has been in operation since 2022. The four facilities generate 1 TWh of net clean electricity annually. Enel anticipates that the deals will cut its net debt by $562.9 million and contribute $22 million to its group net income for 2023.
In May 2023, Sonnedix signed a ten-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with internet services giant Equinix to supply power from three 150 MW solar projects in Spain. Reportedly, the PPA is Sonnedix’s largest deal ever in Europe. The solar plants are located in Cuenca, Castilla-La Mancha. They would be operational by the end of 2024 and will have a total capacity of 150 MW. The plants would produce about 240,000 MWh of green electricity over the course of the ten-year contract, enough to power 71,000 homes in Spain while avoiding more than 36,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year.