Chile will lead Latin America in renewable energy, says president
Oct 20, 2014 - Monique Avila -
pv-tech.org
The president of the Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet said the country
will aim to become a leader in renewable energy.
Speaking during a ceremony for First Solar’s 141MW Luz del Norte Solar
Power Plant in the Atacama Desert, Bachelet said: "Chile is in a position
to be a leader in renewable energy in the Southern Cone, and in the Atacama
region we are doing so."
The US thin-film company First Solar project follows in line with the 16 other
solar projects approved by the Chilean government last year in an effort to
have 20% of the country’s energy produced by non-conventional renewable
energies by 2025.
"We are working hard to address Chile's energy deficit. Projects such
as this show that Chile is progressing towards being a clean-energy producing
country,” said Bachelet. “This year alone, we are incorporating
more than 1000MW of new energy to our system through different non-conventional
renewable energies.”
The president was joined at the ceremony by the president of the Chilean senate,
Isabel Allende, and minister of energy, Máximo Pacheco.
True to its name, which translated means ‘Northern Light”, Luz
del Norte is on track to become the largest solar plant in Latin America, located
58km north of the city of Copiapó.
"Northern Chile is one of the places with the highest solar radiation
in the world, and therefore is the place to develop alternative renewable energy
projects such as First Solar's,” said Pacheco.
The project, heavily funded by loans that total US$290 million from US’s
Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the World Bank’s International
Finance Corporation, will be the biggest solar power facility in the world
to sell electricity on an open contract basis. The solar farm will be comprised
of 1.7 million of First Solar's photovoltaic thin-film modules and is expected
to be completed by December 2015.
Read the orginal article: http://www.pv-tech.org/news/chile_aims_to_lead_latin_america_in_renewable_energy
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