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windfair.net

12/16/2019

ENGIE Closes Down Coal-Fired Power Plants in Chile ahead of Schedule

Two coal-fired power plants with an output of 800 MW are to be closed ahead of schedule by 2024. At the same time, ENGIE is developing an investment plan for renewable energies with a capacity of 1,000 MW for the next few years, which corresponds to an investment of around 1 billion US dollars.

Image: Pixabay

Energy company ENGIE is pushing ahead with its decarbonisation policy in Chile and in 2024 is withdrawing the CTM1 and CTM2 units from the Mejillones coal-fired power plant (334 MW) from the grid. This is in addition to the commitments the company has already made in the last two years to close four more coal-fired units in Tocopilla.

Already in June 2019, ENGIE pioneered the closure of two coal-fired power plants in Tocopilla (170 MW) under a voluntary agreement with the government. The closure of the plants corresponds to a total reduction of 3 million tonnes of CO2 or the removal of 20% of the vehicle fleet from traffic.

In addition to the closure of plants, ENGIE recently announced an ambitious renewable energy development plan in Chile, which envisages the construction of around 1,000 MW of wind and solar projects in the coming years with an investment of around MUSD 1,000.

The first two projects (Parque Solar Capricornio and Parque Eólico Calama) are currently under construction, while a third one (Parque Solar Tamaya) will start construction in the first quarter of 2020, corresponding to the first 370 MW of the plan.