Antofagasta’s Environmental Assessment Commission gave the $2.5bn (€2.2bn), project Volta, the go-ahead in late December 2025, pushing the development toward final environmental qualification resolution.

The project plans to produce up to 620,000 tonnes of green ammonia annually, delivered across two 310,000-tonne phases.

Production will be facilitated by a 600MW solar park, complemented by battery storage, and the Chilean electrical grid. It will utilise wastewater from the municipality of Mejillones, which is currently discharged into the sea after use.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027 and ahead of first commercial production by 2029.

Vice President of Engineering and Development at MAE, Ítalo Olivares, said that supplying local demand will be the project’s initial priority, with exports to other markets coming in a later phase.

“It is important that Volta can demonstrate concrete progress in the execution of the first projects in this new industry,” Olivares added.

This comes as Chile’s vast renewable resources gain attention for their potential to move the country’s domestic energy journey forward and position it as a low-cost provider to high-consumption markets such as Europe.

With a national target of setting up 25GW of green hydrogen production capacity, its government recently rolled out $2.8bn (€2.4bn) in tax credits for buyers and producers of green hydrogen or derivatives.