At the western foothills of the Andes Mountains, Chile's sunshine is changing the country's energy landscape with unprecedented force. However, the rapid expansion of photovoltaics and wind power has also brought a sweet burden - by 2025, up to 6TWh of renewable energy will be limited due to the inability to be consumed in a timely manner, with a year-on-year growth of 8%. At a time when the bottleneck of consumption is becoming increasingly prominent, a key player is stepping onto the stage at an unprecedented speed, becoming the core key to solving the problem.

Explosive growth in energy storage installed capacity, Chile rises to become a benchmark for transformation in Latin America

According to the latest data from the Chilean Renewable Energy and Energy Storage Association, as of December 2025, the scale of battery energy storage systems in operation in Chile has reached 1.5GW/6.2GWh, a significant increase of 87.5% compared to 2024. More noteworthy is that the scale of energy storage projects under construction throughout the year reached 6.8GW/25.3GWh, with a total investment of over 8 billion US dollars, and energy storage deployment has entered the fast lane. With this rapid development trend, Chile successfully compressed the potential power rationing from 8TWh to the actual 6TWh, causing the increase in power rationing to drop significantly from 43% to 8%. ACERA predicts that if the current construction pace is maintained, the scale of battery energy storage in operation in Chile will soar to 9GW by 2027, becoming a benchmark market for energy transformation in Latin America.

Light storage collaboration+regional concentration, solving the problem of northern consumption

The development of energy storage in Chile presents distinct characteristics of "light storage synergy" and "regional concentration". In 2025, Chile will add 1.2GW of photovoltaic installed capacity, of which nearly 30% will be equipped with co located energy storage facilities; Among the 11.7GW of photovoltaic installed capacity nationwide, 1.3GW has been co located with battery energy storage systems, forming a "photovoltaic storage integration" project cluster. Geographically, energy storage projects are highly concentrated in the northern regions where renewable energy resources are abundant but face enormous consumption pressure. Among them, the Antofagasta region has 15 operational projects with a total scale of 1112MW/5058MWh, accounting for 74% of the total energy storage capacity in operation in the country, with an average energy storage time of 4.5 hours. This layout accurately matches the spatiotemporal characteristics of electricity supply and demand, effectively absorbing the excess electricity generated during the peak of daytime photovoltaic power generation.

China's deep participation brings both opportunities and challenges

The thriving energy storage market in Chile has attracted numerous international companies to participate, with Chinese companies showing particularly active performance. The energy storage contracts signed by Chinese enterprises such as Sunac Power, Tianhe Energy Storage, and BYD in Chile have exceeded 8GWh, covering the entire industry chain of EPC, equipment supply, and operation and maintenance, providing solid support for the development of Chile's energy storage industry. However, the rapid development of the industry also faces challenges. Keywords: energy storage news, energy storage new energy news

Currently, over 70% of power transmission projects in Chile are facing delays, and bottlenecks in grid infrastructure may hinder the full utilization of energy storage efficiency and further development of renewable energy in the north. ACERA has identified accelerating the construction of transmission infrastructure and optimizing the design of the electricity market as core work priorities for 2026. The energy storage industry in Chile is transitioning from scale expansion to high-quality development, and its experience will provide valuable reference for similar markets worldwide. Editor/Yang Beihua