SunEdison Inc. has received a contract from Chile's National Energy Commission to supply 570 GWh of electricity per year. SunEdison will develop 350 MW of solar projects to meet this demand.
The company says it expects to spend more than $700 million to develop utility-scale solar photovoltaic power plants throughout the country. The plants will be added to the call right list of TerraForm Power Inc., SunEdison's yieldco subsidiary.
In a separate deal, SunEdIson has closed approximately $146 million in financing on three solar projects in Honduras with a combined capacity of 81.7 MW. The funding arrangements are with International Finance Corp., the Central American Bank for Economic Integration and the OPEC Fund for International Development.
SunEdison says its PV power plants in Chile would generate electricity at 10% to 25% lower cost than fossil-fuel sources without subsidies or incentives. The National Energy Commission in Chile recently changed the bidding process used to award electricity supply contracts for the regulated market to create a more level playing field across different kinds of energy.
With these changes, SunEdison was able to bid on and win supply contracts for 190 GWh per year during the daytime block that begins in 2016, and a further provision of 380 GWh per year during the daytime block that will become operational in 2017. The solar energy generated through SunEdison's projects will be purchased by the National Energy Commission under 15-year power purchase agreements (PPAs).
‘This bid represents a portfolio of strategic projects for SunEdison that will help diversify the energy mix of the Chilean grid and will help resolve the country's energy supply deficit using clean, sustainable renewable energy at competitive electricity prices,’ says Jose Perez, president of SunEdison for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
The projects in Honduras include the 23.3 MW Pacifico, 23.3 MW Choluteca I and 35.1 MW Choluteca II facilities. These solar plants will provide energy to the national grid under 20-year PPAs with ENEE, the state-owned electricity generation, transmission and distribution company. The three plants will be constructed in the region of Choluteca, Honduras, and are expected to be interconnected during the second half of 2015.
