Chile Opens Largest Battery Plant in the Americas

Chile just flipped the switch on the largest battery storage facility in the Americas, and it's about to change how an entire continent thinks about clean energy.

The Elena battery plant in northern Chile's Atacama region now stores 3.5 gigawatt hours of solar energy. That's enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes with renewable electricity around the clock, not just when the sun is shining.

President José Antonio Kast Rist led the inauguration ceremony for the facility, which spans 624 shipping container-sized units holding 6,240 individual batteries. Spanish energy company Grenergy built Elena as part of its ambitious Oasis de Atacama platform, which combines massive solar farms with battery storage to deliver power 24/7.

The project solves one of renewable energy's biggest challenges: keeping the lights on after sunset. By storing excess solar energy generated during the day, Elena ensures stable, clean power flows continuously to homes, businesses, and industrial operations.

Chile isn't stopping at 3.5 GWh. Plans are already underway to double Elena's capacity to 7 GWh by 2028, making it even more powerful.

The Ripple Effect

Elena's impact reaches far beyond reliable electricity. The facility is helping Chile wean itself off expensive, volatile fossil fuels while providing the stable, competitive energy supply needed to attract major tech infrastructure.

Grenergy announced plans for GR Data, a platform of AI data centers powered entirely by Elena's renewable energy. The first development, Atacama Data, will start with 400 megawatts of computing power for training large AI models without consuming any water, a critical advantage in the desert region.

Together with two additional data campuses near Santiago, Chile is positioning itself as Latin America's premier destination for cloud computing and artificial intelligence. The combination of abundant solar power, massive battery storage, and strategic location makes the country uniquely attractive to global tech companies seeking sustainable infrastructure.

Grenergy has invested $2.8 billion in Chile since arriving in 2012 and plans to pour in another $2 billion over the next two years. That commitment makes the Spanish company one of Chile's three largest international investors.

The broader Oasis platform now encompasses three major hubs across Chile and Spain, totaling 5 gigawatts of solar capacity and 22 gigawatt hours of storage. Each hub replicates the successful model pioneered at Elena, proving the approach works at scale.

Chile is showing the world that renewable energy can power not just homes and factories, but the data-hungry future of artificial intelligence too.