In 2025, Chile’s energy sector saw a surge of green Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and associated investments, signalling a maturation of its renewable energy market. These deals—ranging from solar-only contracts to solar-plus-storage hybrids and project acquisitions—underscore a shift in Chile from generation-centric renewable deployment toward integrated, flexible clean energy systems.
Noteworthy 2025 PPA transactions include:
- Grenergy & Global Energy Company: 390 GWh/year solar supply
- Metlen & Copec EMOAC: 450 GWh/year renewable + 322 MW BESS
- Zelestra & Abastible: 220 MWdc solar + 1 GWh battery capacity
- CVC DIF Acquires Grenergy’s Gabriela Project, a hybrid PV-BESS plant
- Odata & Atlas Renewable Energy: 100% renewable supply to data centre (ST01)
Our report unpacks the significance of these agreements in the context of Chile’s evolving regulatory environment, grid challenges, investment climate, and storage deployment trajectory.
Market & System Context
Renewable Penetration and Growth Trajectory
Chile has made rapid strides in non-conventional renewables (NCRE). By recent accounts, solar and wind generation exceeded 33% of total electricity output in 2024, marking a record share. In parallel, the country has set ambitious targets: reaching ~70% renewables by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
Installed solar PV capacity has scaled meaningfully: by mid-2020s, more than 11 GW of PV is cited, and solar projects now supply over a fifth of national electricity.
Yet growth in generation is only one dimension. Grid integration, curtailment, and system flexibility are becoming binding constraints. Chile is developing regulatory tools and tenders to support storage deployment as a backbone of system resilience.
Storage Deployment & Policy Enablers
Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) have moved from a niche engineering concept to a strategic necessity in Chile’s energy transition. Analysts describe storage as “Chile’s renewables saviour,” especially given grid bottlenecks and curtailment pressures.
As of mid-2025:
- About 1,355 MW (5,162 MWh) of battery storage were in operation (or committed) as of May 2025, per Ember’s “Reducing Curtailment in Chile” report.
- Earlier estimates indicated a Chilean pipeline of ~7.7 GW BESS, with 1.3 GWh already operational and projections of ~10.2 GWh by 2026.
- In 2024, national projections expected Chile to exceed 1 GW of storage capacity, with up to 2.25 GW by 2026.
On the regulatory side, Chile has begun to adapt its legal and market frameworks:
- A Storage Law (Energy Storage and Electromobility Law, Law 21.505/2022) enables participation of storage in energy markets, establishing remuneration for power and energy services.
- The government has proposed tendering 2 GW of grid-scale BESS (~US$2 billion) to support system stability and integrate renewables.
- Storage is being recognised as an independent revenue stream (“power + energy”) under new power sufficiency regulation, decoupling it from pure generation.
These structural changes aim to reduce curtailment losses, provide ancillary services, and improve dispatchability for intermittent renewables.
Transmission & Grid Infrastructure Constraints
A core challenge remains grid capacity and transmission congestion. Chile’s solar-heavy zones, especially in the Atacama region, are physically distant from main load centres, creating constraints on energy flow.
To address that, promulgated in December 2024 Energy Transition Law (Law 21.721) aims to accelerate transmission expansion, ease permitting, and strengthen regulatory certainty for grid projects.
Additionally, analysts argue that unlocking renewable potential requires not only generation and storage, but also transmission reinforcement and congestion relief.
2025 PPA & Investment Deals: Key Deals Deconstructed
Below is a closer look at each of the 2025 PPA or acquisition transactions you flagged, with analysis of their technical, financial, and strategic implications.
Grenergy: 390 GWh Solar PPA
Grenergy’s long-term PPA to supply 390 GWh annually from solar projects in central Chile marks one of the largest single solar-only offtake agreements in recent years. The electricity is to be sourced from its developing platform in the central region.
Notably, the arrangement reportedly allocates 110 GWh over 15 years and 280 GWh over 12 years, starting around October 2026.
The contract helps anchor Grenergy’s pipeline and provides a creditworthy counterpart with likely rated counterparty risk mitigation. It also reflects the base demand for solar-only contracts in markets that have relatively stable daytime demand curves.
However, relying purely on daytime solar exposure entails inherent constraints: without storage to shift dispatchability, the offtaker must tolerate generation intermittency or absorb curtailment risk. The proliferation of hybrid (solar and storage) PPAs suggests a market preference shift, which may make pure-solar contracts less favoured over time.
Metlen & Copec EMOAC: 450 GWh + 322 MW BESS
The Metlen–Copec EMOAC PPA is structurally more advanced. The parties committed to a 15-year agreement for 450 GWh annually, sourced from four solar plants and backed by 322 MW of BESS to firm the output.
An interesting feature: the integration of battery storage allows the delivery of overnight clean energy (i.e. evening or nighttime supply), addressing a key limitation of solar-only contracts.
This kind of hybrid PPA is better suited to match diurnal demand patterns and reduce exposure to dispatch volatility. In the context of Chile’s broader transition, these are the types of contracts increasingly sought by industrial offtakers.
Zelestra & Abastible: 220 MWdc + 1 GWh
The tailored PPA between Zelestra and Abastible includes 220 MWdc of solar PV and 1 GWh of battery storage. Construction has already commenced in the Tarapacá region.
By embedding storage, Zelestra can deliver a more stable output profile, reducing risk for both developer and offtaker. The contract is an exemplar of the hybrid PPA paradigm Chile is beginning to embrace more broadly.
Further, financing and structuring support for this project came from DNV, which assisted Zelestra in securing ≈ US$282 million in green financing, indicative of investor appetite for well-structured integrated renewable + storage projects.
CVC DIF Acquisition: Gabriela Hybrid Project
CVC DIF’s acquisition of Grenergy’s Gabriela phase is a notable deal. The Gabriela project is part of the broader Oasis de Atacama complex, which in full build-out will combine ~2 GW solar and ~11 GWh storage. The Gabriela phase itself includes ~272 MW of PV and ~1.1 GWh of battery storage.
The sale was reportedly valued up to ~US$475 million, with Grenergy retaining O&M roles for an initial period.
This acquisition demonstrates increased institutional capital flows into hybrid renewables in Chile. The deal also illustrates how PPAs underpin project finance and exit strategies: the 15-year PPA backing provides revenue certainty, which de-risks the investment for buyers like CVC DIF.
From a system perspective, hybrid projects such as Gabriela are crucial to Chile’s strategy to embed flexibility and dispatchability in new renewable capacity.
Odata & Atlas Renewable Energy: 100% Renewable Supply to Data Center
While not purely a Chilean PPA origin (with contract effectiveness since December 2024), the Odata–Atlas agreement to supply 100% of ST01 data center energy via renewables is emblematic of the growing energy demand from digital infrastructure and how corporates are aligning with sustainability goals.
Data centres are among the fastest-rising power consumers globally, and securing clean supply is essential for carbon accounting, investor metrics, and ESG compliance. This contract illustrates how Chile’s PPA market is expanding beyond pure generation to encompass high-demand, energy-intensive offtakers.
Analytical Insights & Strategic Implications
Together, the 2025 agreements highlight several evolving characteristics of Chile’s renewable energy market:
- Hybrid PPAs Are Maturing
The shift toward PPAs combining generation and storage (e.g. Metlen–EMOAC, Zelestra–Abastible, Gabriela) signals that offtakers increasingly demand dispatchable or semi-dispatchable profiles. The era of pure daytime solar contracts is giving way to more complex structures that balance risk, pricing, and reliability. - Storage Is a Market Differentiator
As grid constraints and curtailment intensify, projects with storage will have a competitive advantage. Chile’s regulatory reforms that allow storage to be remunerated independently are pivotal in unlocking these business models. - Institutional Capital Trusts Long-term PPA Risk Mitigation
The Gabriela sale to CVC DIF underscores how revenue-backed hybrid assets attract institutional investors. The role of a long-term PPA is crucial in securing financing, managing offtaker credit risk, and enabling secondary sales or refinancing. - Sectoral Clusters Are Embracing PPAs
Beyond energy producers, downstream consumers—such as industrial energy users and data centres—are embracing PPAs. This expansion of buyer types broadens the demand base for renewable assets and helps absorb variable supply. - Grid & Transmission Will Be the Rate-Limiting Factor
These deals are productive only insofar as the transmission and distribution grid can absorb and dispatch the power. Without commensurate investment in grid upgrades, especially in the north–center corridor, the full potential of these deals may be constrained. - Regulatory & Market Design Must Keep Pace
Ensuring that storage, hybrid projects, and PPAs operate within fair, transparent markets will require continual regulatory refinement. Mechanisms for capacity payments, ancillary service markets, and long-term contract frameworks must evolve in tandem with project sophistication.
Outlook
Assuming sustained policy support and continued investor confidence, Chile is well-positioned to exceed 70% renewable generation by 2026. The 2025 PPA wave—involving more than 1,000 GWh of new contracted renewable energy capacity—represents a meaningful acceleration in contract-based deployment.
If transmission bottlenecks are relieved and storage deployment is scaled, Chile has potential to become a paradigm for clean energy markets in Latin America. Forward-looking developers, offtakers, and financiers who embed flexibility and grid integration into their deals will be best placed to lead in the next generation of PPAs.
Appendix A — PPA Benchmarks: Mexico, Brazil, Colombia (comparative summary)
How to read this appendix: each country panel lists recent, representative PPA examples (deal name / developer / counterparty / headline metric), followed by short, evidence-backed benchmarks for contract duration, typical scale, pricing signals (where available), storage inclusion, and relevant market/regulatory context.
Mexico
Representative PPA examples & context
- Walmart de México y Centroamérica — historic long-term arrangements with wind and hydro projects in Mexico that underpin a substantial portion of the retailer’s renewables sourcing in the country (example of corporates procuring via PPAs rather than only market supply).
- Market/legal summaries by international law firms note an emerging corporate PPA market in Mexico, although policy and permitting constraints (and the role of the Federal Electricity Commission) influence bankability and project structure.
Benchmarks
- Typical contract length: corporate PPAs and self-supply contracts in Mexico have historically ranged 10–20 years; many large corporate counterparties favor 15-year terms for bankability. (Global PPA practice and Mexican corporate precedent).
- Typical deal size / offtake: Mexico’s corporate PPAs vary widely — from single-digit MW self-supply PPAs up to aggregated programs representing several hundred MWs (multi-asset portfolios). Large retail/industrial players may aggregate off-take across multiple assets (Walmart’s historical ~0.55 GW of contracted wind/hydro across several PPAs).
- Pricing signals: Mexico’s wholesale and retail price environment is comparatively elevated (reported average power prices reached ~USD 120–150/MWh levels in recent years for retail averages), which can affect corporate PPA economics relative to other LATAM markets. Publicly-available, transparent per-MWh corporate PPA price disclosures in Mexico are rarer than in markets with highly active competitive corporate markets.
- Storage & hybridization: Deployment of BESS in Mexico is increasing but has lagged relative to Chile/Brazil; hybrid PPAs remain less common at scale (many PPAs are still generation-only), although market demand for dispatchable/24/7 services is growing. (Regulatory and market design remain key constraints.
- Market/regulatory notes: Mexico’s PPA market is shaped by interactions with the state-owned utility and evolving permitting and market rules; legal counsel and bankability packages are often needed to close large transactions.
Brazil
Representative PPA examples & context
- Gameleira (example project referenced in market coverage) — a recent corporate PPA (reported example) secured a 20-year corporate PPA at approximately USD 22/MWh, illustrating very competitive pricing available in certains deals in Brazil’s free market. (This is an indicative public market example; individual deal terms vary widely.)
- Large developers and utilities (Atlas, ENGIE, Neoenergia, etc.) remain active PPA sellers and sponsors across Brazil, with frequent corporate and merchant offtake activity.
Benchmarks
- Typical contract length: 10–20 years, with 15–20-year deals common for utility-scale projects and 20-year contracts seen in some corporate/utility deals used to underpin project finance.
- Typical deal size / offtake: Brazil has both many small/medium PPAs (tens of MW) and large deals (hundreds of MW); recent utility and developer pipelines indicate multi-hundreds MW complexes are frequently contracted or financed. Atlas/ENGIE project sizes and financings in the hundreds of MW are illustrative.
- Pricing signals: Public examples demonstrate very low contract prices in some transactions (single-digit to low-20s USD/MWh in highly competitive auctions or corporate deals) but prices are context-sensitive (location, indexation, currency exposure, and inclusion of firmness/storages). The Gameleira cited example (~USD 22/MWh)demonstrates that, where transmission and resource risk are low, Brazil can yield very competitive corporate PPA pricing.
- Storage & hybridization: Brazil’s grid is historically hydro-dominant; however, solar + storage solutions are growing in relevance as solar penetration increases. Hybrid structures are being explored more commonly, but large-scale BESS roll-outs are concentrated where they add clear system value.
- Market/regulatory notes: Brazil’s free (contract) market permits direct bilateral negotiations between generators and large consumers; auction and merchant models coexist. Financing availability from BNDES and robust project finance markets is a structural advantage.
Colombia
Representative PPA examples & context
- Scatec – El Campano / 130 MW (2025/2025 press coverage) — recent example of a 15-year PPA for a c.130 MW solar plant in Colombia illustrates growing project scale and institutional offtaker interest (reporting in 2025 on Scatec’s Colombian deal).
- Government auctions and merchant/corporate PPAs are used in parallel; Colombia has moved to encourage renewables via scheduled auctions and growing commercial interest.
Benchmarks
- Typical contract length: 10–20 years, with 15-year PPAs frequently used to underpin project finance for utility-scale solar farms. The Scatec example demonstrates the 15-year norm in recent projects.
- Typical deal size / offtake: Deal sizes vary from modest utility-scale plants (~50–200 MW) up to larger portfolios; early-stage pipeline growth in 2024–2025 shows repeated 100+ MW single-asset PPAs coming online.
- Pricing signals: Colombia’s auction and PPA prices are subject to local market and hydrological cycles; recent deals indicate competitive pricing trends, but transparent, aggregated PPA price indices for Colombia are still less centralised than in North America/Europe. Specific project price disclosure is sporadic in the public domain.
- Storage & hybridisation: BESS penetration in Colombia is nascent but growing; most recent large solar deals remain generation-focused, although storage is being introduced where it can firm output and access value streams.
- Market/regulatory notes: Colombia’s auction schedules, and recent policy steps to stimulate renewables, create periodic opportunities for project developers to secure long-term offtake; corporate offtakers and traders are increasingly active.
Cross-market takeaways (short)
- Contract tenors converge at 10–20 years (15 years common). The 15-year tenor used in Chile’s Metlen–Copec and many Colombian projects is broadly representative of the region.
- Deal sizes vary by market structure: Chile and Brazil are seeing very large single-deal volumes (hundreds of GWh and multi-hundred MW projects); Mexico and Colombia have a mix of smaller bespoke corporate deals and larger auction-backed projects. Chile’s 2025 deals (e.g., 390 GWh, 450 GWh) sit at the large end of the regional spectrum.
- Price dispersion is wide: where public prices are available (Brazil example showing very low corporate PPA pricing in some deals, Mexico showing higher retail averages), price depends heavily on local resource quality, curtailment risk, transmission, currency exposure, and whether storage/firming services are included.
- Storage inclusion is a differentiator: Chile stands out for the scale and frequency of hybrid (PV+BESS) PPAs in 2025 — a trend accelerating across the region as developers and offtakers seek dispatchable renewable energy. Zelestra and Metlen’s 2025 agreements in Chile explicitly include GWh-scale storage, setting a regional benchmark.
Selected sources (key references for appendix claims)
- Grenergy PPA (Chile): Grenergy press release and coverage of the 390 GWh PPA (May 2025).
- Metlen – Copec EMOAC PPA (Chile): Metlen press release and media coverage describing the 15-year, 450 GWh PPA and 322 MW BESS support.
- Zelestra / Aurora financing & structure (Chile): Zelestra & DNV / financing coverage describing the 220 MWdc + 1 GWh hybrid project and financing close.
- IRENA — Renewable power generation costs in 2024: global context on evolving cost curves for solar and battery storage, useful for benchmarking price trends regionally.
- Regional PPA market outlook / BNEF insights: BloombergNEF coverage of Latin America PPA trends and the corporate market’s lead role in new PPAs.
- Brazil pricing example (Gameleira / PPA price signal): market reporting that highlights a recent corporate PPA at ~USD 22/MWh, illustrative of competitive pricing outcomes in Brazil.
- Mexico corporate PPA market notes: legal & market briefings (Norton Rose) and corporate disclosures (Walmart) describing the evolution and structure of Mexican PPAs.
- Colombia project examples: Scatec 15-year PPA coverage for a 130 MW solar plant in Colombia (2025 reporting).
