U.K private equity firm Actis has announced its acquisition of the 110-megawatt El Pelicano Solar Plant in Chile. This plant is expected to deliver 300 gigawatt hours per year of electricity to Metro de Santiago, Santiago’s underground railway system. 

(Press Release) Actis and SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) announced today that Actis has acquired the 110-megawatt (DC) El Pelicano Solar Plant in Chile, which uses SunPower® Oasis® power plant technology. It is expected to deliver 300 gigawatt hours per year of electricity to Metro de Santiago, Santiago’s underground railway system. The project is in the municipality of La Higuera (Coquimbo Region) near Vallenar (Atacama Region), and commenced commercial operation on November 17, 2017.

“With a supportive regulatory environment and abundant solar resource, Chile is a market we know extremely well through our investments in the Aela Energía and Atlas Renewables platforms,” said Javier Areitio, director at Actis. “We are confident that in partnership with Metro de Santiago and SunPower, the El Pelicano plant will be a terrific illustration of clean, sustainable energy for many years to come.”

On January 11, Metro de Santiago celebrated completion of the plant with an event at the site, attended by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and Metro de Santiago President Rodrigo Azocar. Metro de Santiago will buy the power generated by the plant under a power purchase agreement. SunPower is providing operations and maintenance services for the facility under a long-term contract.

“Actis is focused on sustainable value, which makes the El Pelicano Solar Plant a great fit for its portfolio,” said Chuck Boynton, SunPower chief financial officer. “High performance SunPower Oasis technology is designed to cost-effectively maximize power generation for decades. Forward-looking organizations like Actis and Metro de Santiago are a global model for the development of solar power, reducing reliance on unsustainable energy sources.”

The SunPower Oasis system is a fully-integrated, modular solar power block that is engineered for rapid deployment and optimizing land use. The high-efficiency SunPower solar panels installed at the site will be cleaned using SunPower’s proprietary robotic solar panel cleaning technology, which uses 75 percent less water than traditional cleaning methods and can help improve system performance by up to 15 percent.

Worldwide, more than 4.6 gigawatts of solar power plants operate today using SunPower’s leading solar technology.