Contents
What does a BESS site need?
A storage site is chosen by its substation. Circular DDU 522 of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MINVU) notes that a BESS can sit inside a substation or near one, joined by a connection line. It cites four example projects whose battery areas range from 0.37 to 4.9 ha (about 0.9 to 12 acres).
Those figures cover the battery area alone. The polygon in the contract also holds the access road, the route of the connection line and room to adjust the layout while permits are processed, because the environmental approval fixes the footprint.
What makes a parcel worth securing is its distance to a substation with capacity. Being close to a substation says nothing about capacity, which depends on the processes of the Coordinador Eléctrico Nacional, Chile’s independent system operator. We start from the node: the parcels around each target substation, their apparent owners, neighboring projects in the environmental review system and any option already recorded against them.
Standalone or co-located?
A standalone BESS needs its own polygon, its own owner or owners, an access road from the public road and a connection line to the substation. The line, and any access across a neighboring parcel, need easements, which our article on transmission line and gen-tie easements covers. The battery yard itself is always negotiated, because electric concessions cover lines and substations, not storage (LGSE, arts. 2 and 51).
A co-located BESS sits inside or next to an operating plant. Your environmental consultant confirms what adding it means for the plant’s environmental approval (RCA). On the land side, the plant lease has to grant the right to install storage, its area and its rent. If it does not, every owner of the plant site has to agree to an amendment, one by one.
A BESS connected to the distribution grid as a PMGD can use that regime if its surplus power does not exceed 9,000 kW (LGSE, art. 149).
How does DDU 522 classify a standalone BESS for land use?
Circular DDU 522, issued on March 14, 2025, classifies pure or standalone storage systems under the energy infrastructure use (Infraestructura Energética) of art. 2.1.29 of the OGUC, the national building ordinance. In the rural areas of intercommunal or metropolitan plans, the circular says these systems are always admitted, without prejudice to the environmental law and to Art. 55 LGUC.
The OGUC article itself says that infrastructure networks are always admitted, and that infrastructure buildings in the rural areas of intercommunal and metropolitan plans are always admitted, subject to the same two provisos.
Both provisos shape the schedule. The first brings in the environmental review whenever a part of the project triggers it. The second keeps the rural construction approval in place, with the owner’s signature it requires. Neither proviso changes the classification itself, which is the point the circular settles. For each finalist parcel we also order the municipality’s zoning certificate, the Certificado de Informaciones Previas (LGUC, art. 116), to confirm whether it lies inside or outside an urban limit.
What does Art. 55 LGUC require on rural land?
Outside an urban limit, no buildings may be raised except farm buildings, housing for the owner and workers, and certain social housing (LGUC, art. 55). Industrial, infrastructure and equipment buildings need a favorable report from the regional office of the housing ministry (SEREMI de Vivienda y Urbanismo) and from the SAG, the agricultural and livestock service, before the municipality approves them. That is the rural construction approval (Art. 55 LGUC).
Two details shape the lease. Under the SAG’s procedure, the owner of the parcel files the request, and the site visit requires soil pits. Inside the environmental review, the same approval becomes sectoral permit PAS 160, which requires that the project neither create a new urban nucleus nor cause loss or degradation of the soil (DS 40/2012, art. 160).
DDU 522 does not exempt storage from Art. 55, so we plan every rural BESS site for the approval and get the owner’s signature and access for the pits written into the option. Law 21.770 lets the OGUC replace some permits with notices or declarations (LGUC, art. 2 bis). Whether it has done so for rural infrastructure should be checked when you file.
When does a BESS go through environmental review?
For the SEA, a storage system is not a generating plant under letter c) of the environmental law’s project list, so it does not have to enter the SEIA, Chile’s environmental impact assessment system, on that ground (SEA criterion, 2023). Other categories can bring it in:
- its connection line, if it exceeds 23 kV and 2 km (1.2 miles) of route, a threshold in force since January 2026 (DS 40/2012, art. 3, as amended by Decree 17 of 2025);
- its step-up substation (art. 3);
- a location in an area under official protection, or in an urban wetland (Ley 19.300, art. 10).
The law prohibits knowingly splitting a project to avoid the SEIA (Ley 19.300, art. 11 bis), so a storage yard and its line are read together. A screening opinion request (consulta de pertinencia) asks the SEA whether a project must enter (DS 40/2012, art. 26).
Law 21.850 also replaced letter c) with “energy generating plants”, effective once a new regulation is issued. That regulation cannot set a threshold below 3 MW and must differentiate by generation type (Ley 21.850, art. 11 and transitional provisions).
State land or private land for storage?
Some substations sit next to state land. The Ministry of National Assets (Bienes Nacionales) grants concessions over state land for a set purpose, by tender or, in justified cases, directly. The concession goes to a Chilean legal entity, against payment and for up to 50 years (DL 1.939, arts. 57 to 62). State land within 10 km (6 miles) of the border can be granted only to Chilean persons (art. 6).
A concession replaces the private owner’s signatures with an application process and the Ministry’s conditions. A private polygon next to the same substation means title work and negotiation instead. We put both on the same map at screening, so the choice is made with the timing of each in view. Our pillar article on securing land in Chile sets out the concession rules in more detail.
What changes in the lease for a BESS?
These terms need more attention than in a solar or wind lease:
- Option term. It has to cover the deadlines in your connection approval, because the Coordinador can revoke the approval if the filings for the under-construction declaration come late (DS 37/2019, art. 25). Since Law 21.505, storage goes through that declaration, which requires title or a promise agreement (DS 125/2017, art. 19).
- Polygon and release. A larger option area, released at exercise to the footprint the environmental approval fixes.
- Owner signatures. The Art. 55 request and access for its soil pits. For a PMGD, the owner’s sworn consent and a title certificate no older than 30 days with each connection request (DS 88/2019, art. 43), so the lease obliges the owner to sign them each time.
- Fire safety and neighbors. Firebreaks and vegetation management, with who does them and at whose cost, and how neighbors are informed in an emergency.
- Insurance. Liability and fire cover for the owner’s property and third parties, with the certificates delivered to the owner.
- Assignment. A rural tenant needs the owner’s prior written consent to assign the lease (DL 993, art. 7), so consent to assign to the project company and lenders goes in the lease.
- Removal. Batteries, equipment, cabling and foundations removed within a set period, backed by decommissioning security.
How the option turns into the lease is explained in our guide from land option to recorded lease. If you have target substations, send them to us with MW and MWh. In the Coquimbo Region, our own property, Estancia El Chañar, may fit.
Frequently asked questions
Does a standalone BESS need a qualification from the health authority?
Can we add a BESS to an operating solar or wind plant without a new environmental assessment?
How long does environmental review take for a BESS that enters the SEIA?
How long does it take to develop a BESS project in Chile?
Can a BESS be sited inside an urban limit?
Sources
- MINVU, Circular DDU 522 on energy storage systems (March 14, 2025) (verified on )
- Ordenanza General de Urbanismo y Construcciones (DS 47 of 1992), art. 2.1.29 (verified on )
- Ley General de Urbanismo y Construcciones (DFL 458 of 1975), arts. 2 bis, 41, 55, 56 and 116 (verified on )
- SAG, rural construction approval procedure (Informe de Factibilidad para Construcciones, IFC) (verified on )
- Ley 19.300 (General Environmental Law), arts. 10, 11 bis, 15, 16, 18, 19 and 88 (verified on )
- Ley 21.850 (October 17, 2026), amending Ley 19.300, art. 11 (verified on )
- DS 40/2012, Environmental Impact Assessment System Regulation, arts. 2, 3, 26 and 160 (verified on )
- Decree 17 of 2025, Ministry of the Environment, amending DS 40/2012 (in force January 2026) (verified on )
- Environmental Assessment Service (SEA), criterion on energy storage systems (Res. Ex. of December 12, 2023) (verified on )
- Ley General de Servicios Eléctricos (DFL 4/20.018 of 2006), arts. 2, 51 and 149 (verified on )
- Ley 21.505 of 2022 (energy storage and electromobility) (verified on )
- DS 37/2019, Ministry of Energy, Transmission Systems Regulation, art. 25 (verified on )
- DS 125/2017, Ministry of Energy, Coordination and Operation Regulation, art. 19 (verified on )
- DS 88/2019, Ministry of Energy, Small Distributed Generation Regulation, art. 43 (verified on )
- Decree-Law 1.939 of 1977 (state property), arts. 6 and 57 to 62 (verified on )
- Decree-Law 993 of 1975 (rural leases), art. 7 (verified on )
- National Energy Commission (CNE), Final Report, Investment Cost Study 2019, Table 1 (verified on )
This article is general information and does not replace legal advice on your case. The laws cited may change; check their current text at the Library of the National Congress of Chile (bcn.cl).