YPF Luz inaugurates 305 MW El Quemado solar park in Mendoza, Argentina’s largest photovoltaic facility under RIGI regime

YPF Luz has brought online the El Quemado solar park in Las Heras department, Mendoza, with 305 MW of installed capacity making it Argentina’s largest photovoltaic facility. The project required an investment of USD 211-220 million and represents the first corporate submission and approval under the Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones (RIGI), the large investment incentive regime designed to accelerate private capital deployment in strategic sectors. The park’s generation capacity equals the consumption of 233,000 households, sufficient to supply Mendoza city and the Las Heras and Lavalle departments.

The facility achieved phased commissioning between December 2025 and February 2026, with the initial 200 MW entering operation and the remaining 105 MW undergoing final technical testing for commercial authorization. The infrastructure comprises more than 511,000 bifacial photovoltaic panels, 5,800 trackers, 1,170 inverters, and 40 transformation centers across 620 hectares. The project maintains an estimated capacity factor of 31.4 percent and connects to the Argentine Interconnection System through a new GIS technology transformer substation built by Distrocuyo, which will also handle operations.

Originally developed by state-owned EMESA in 2017 before acquisition by YPF Luz, the construction phase employed over 350 workers at peak activity with 87 percent local labor participation and 56 percent integration of locally-sourced materials and goods. The generated energy is commercialized to industries, corporations, and distributors nationwide through the Renewable Energy Term Market (MATER). El Quemado represents YPF Luz’s seventh renewable project, bringing the company to its first gigawatt of renewable generation capacity and establishing it as Argentina’s second-largest renewable energy generator.

The inauguration drew senior government officials including Chief of Cabinet Manuel Adorni, Economy Minister Luis Caputo, and Energy Secretary María Tettamanti, alongside Mendoza Governor Alfredo Cornejo, YPF CEO Horacio Marín, and YPF Luz CEO Martín Mandarano. Adorni emphasized the project demonstrates benefits of macroeconomic stability and regulatory predictability, noting that current RIGI pipeline projects under evaluation could generate USD 965 billion in investments with USD 40 billion annual trade balance impact. Marín stated YPF is positioning to help Argentina exceed USD 30 billion in annual energy exports by 2031.

The RIGI framework provided tax benefits and imposed execution deadlines that compressed El Quemado’s development timeline to 18 months from regulatory approval to operation. Cornejo framed the regime as addressing structural economic barriers to attracting large-scale capital while advocating for eventual fiscal reforms that would render special investment regimes unnecessary.