Project finance in Chile has surged back to life, propelled by a wave of investment in large-scale battery storage—and BNP Paribas has been central to this momentum. The bank’s leadership across multiple landmark transactions has earned it the award for Infrastructure Bank of the Year in the Southern Cone.
The breadth of BNP Paribas’s deals—across multiple sponsors, technologies, and financing structures—set it apart in 2025. By enabling the rapid adoption of storage technologies and backing complex, large-ticket transactions from the region’s leading sponsors, the French bank not only advanced energy transition in the region but also reinforced its reputation as one of the Southern Cone’s pre-eminent infrastructure financiers.
Indeed, the bank played a pivotal role in some of the most important deals to reach financial close during the awards period. It advised and financed three solar-plus-storage projects developed by Atlas Renewable Energy, including the Estepa I and II platforms, which together add 215MW of solar capacity paired with a 418MW/4h battery system. It was the largest financing ever closed by Atlas and one of the largest PV-plus-BESS financings in Chile to date. The project is designed to help ease congestion in northern Chile’s grid—one of the most pressing systemic issues for the country’s energy transition.
BNP Paribas also supported Grenergy’s Oasis de Atacama portfolio, structuring and financing three separate projects—Gabriela, Victor Jara, and Quillagua. Each deal required innovative structuring to overcome regulatory uncertainty while new storage legislation was still being finalized in late 2023. At Quillagua, BNP Paribas crafted a custom solution combining multiple income streams to refinance an existing operating asset while simultaneously funding new greenfield capacity. Together, these projects represented over $1 billion in financing and are among the largest battery-integrated renewable platforms in Latin America.
“These investments have to a large extent exceeded what the market expected,” says Jean-Valery Patin, Managing Director and Head of Project Finance Latin America at BNP Paribas. “Chile has suffered from curtailment issues, but many companies now have the opportunity to either develop standalone storage or to add a battery system to their existing operations.”
The bank’s work with AES’ solar-plus-storage portfolio, including the Arenales and Ragnar expansions, further demonstrated BNP Paribas’s ability to execute repeat transactions with complex structures. These deals built on earlier financings for the Patagonia I and II projects, reflecting both continuity and deep knowledge of the Chilean energy market.
Patin notes that the market is currently testing different models for battery deployment—from standalone facilities selling power either through PPAs or into the merchant market, to hybrid solar-plus-storage projects. BNP Paribas is open to structures with no more than 30% merchant exposure, he points out, underscoring the importance of long-term predictability for project bankability.
Chile’s approval of dedicated legislation for battery storage at the end of 2023 has helped unlock this financing boom. “We expect more projects to hit the market soon,” says Patin. “They will be key to helping renewable producers better manage grid access while reducing curtailment risks.”
Beyond renewables, BNP Paribas has extended its infrastructure franchise in the Southern Cone with financings in water pipelines for mining operations, electric buses, and data centers, reflecting both diversification and innovation.
Argentina also remains on the bank’s radar. While the macroeconomic outlook has improved over the past 18 months, Patin stresses that long-term stability is essential before project finance can return in force. “Project finance relies on cash flows over the long term, and that requires predictability,” he says. “Argentina has been fairly volatile, including when it comes to energy policy. So it is about how to convince people that it will have stability in the long run.”