Enel Chile, through its subsidiary Enel Green Power Chile, has announced the start of construction of Finis Terrae BESS, a 100 MW battery energy storage system at the interconnection point that will be incorporated into the Finis Terrae solar park in the Antofagasta region. The installation will store part of the solar generation and deliver it later to Chile’s National Electricity System (SEN).
The project will transform the site into a hybrid power plant combining solar PV generation and energy storage. Enel said the system will have estimated annual stored energy of 168 GWh, equivalent to approximately 12% of the potential stored energy in the reservoir of the Pangue hydropower plant. The construction announcement does not specify the BESS’s nominal energy capacity in MWh or its discharge duration.
In its 2025 annual Form 20-F, Enel Chile included Finis Terrae BESS among its pipeline projects, with 100 MW and a total estimated investment of about $95 million. At the end of December 2025, the company said it had not yet incurred any expenses associated with the project.
The new BESS will incorporate grid-forming (GFM) technology, which allows inverters to actively establish voltage and frequency references for the grid, unlike conventional inverters that follow those references. Enel said this configuration will help maintain voltage and frequency stability in the SEN.
The use of this technology is part of the technical changes being driven in Chile’s electricity system as the share of resources connected through power electronics increases. In 2024, the National Electricity Coordinator published specific technical recommendations for grid-forming and grid-following technologies and proposed that new BESS projects connected to the transmission system incorporate GFM capabilities, including fast voltage and frequency control, synchronization and oscillation damping.
Finis Terrae is located in the municipality of María Elena. The original solar park has a capacity of 160 MW, later supplemented by Finis Terrae Extension, with 126 MW, and Finis Terrae III, with 18 MW. The two latter plants received authorization to begin commercial operations in July 2023, and Enel estimated combined annual generation of about 448 GWh.
Finis Terrae BESS joins two other large storage projects that Enel Green Power Chile is building in Antofagasta. In November 2025, the company announced the start of construction of BESS Las Salinas, associated with the hybrid complex comprising a 205 MW solar plant and the 112 MW Sierra Gorda Este wind farm. The battery system was announced with about 205 MW and the ability to store energy for up to four hours.
In April this year, the company also began construction of Azabache BESS, a 94 MW/372 MWh system, which will be integrated into the complex comprising the Azabache solar plant and Valle de los Vientos wind farm, also in the Antofagasta region, according to pv magazine Latam.
With Finis Terrae, Las Salinas and Azabache, as well as its systems already in operation, Enel said it has more than 730 MW of storage across operating and construction projects.
The development comes as battery deployment continues to accelerate in Chile. According to data from the end of July, Chile had 2,291 MW of storage in operation and another 4.7 GW under construction at the end of June.
From pv magazine LatAm
The post Enel Chile starts building 100 MW Finis Terrae BESS appeared first on Energy Storage.
