Chile, champion of renewable energies in Latin America, relies on green hydrogen, this gas obtained by electrolysis with clean, non-carbonated electricity. In November 2020, Chilean President Sebastian Piñera unveiled an ambitious national plan to hoist his country among the world’s top three exporters of this energy, used, among other things, in transport and the steel industry. The government plans to create a fund endowed with 50 million dollars (43 million euros) to support projects in this sector, and has started to deploy “green hydrogen diplomacy” to position itself in this market. world still in its infancy.
The country’s main asset lies in its capacity to produce renewable energy, at competitive prices, thanks to its exceptional and varied climatic conditions. On a narrow strip of land stretching 4,500 km from north to south, the country can produce all the green energies on the planet. In addition to the Atacama Desert, which benefits from the highest solar radiation in the world, the wind blows hard on the 4,000 kilometers of coastline and even beyond, as on the plateaus of Chilean Patagonia. The country’s wind and solar energy production capacities have increased tenfold over the past seven years, thanks in particular to foreign investment.
Strengthen your autonomy
The American fund EIG Global Energy Partners has thus invested more than 800 million dollars in the construction of the first thermodynamic solar power plant in Latin America. Inaugurated in March 2019, it produces continuous electricity for 250,000 homes, day and night, thanks to solar heat which produces energy from a turbine running on water vapor. The country invested very early in the renewable energy sector to strengthen its autonomy, shortly after the sudden shutdown, in 2007, of gas supplies from Argentina.
This policy now allows it to exit coal earlier than expected. In early July, the government announced the closure of four coal-fired power stations, fifteen years ahead of schedule. “With clean energies, electricity is no longer produced and consumed in the same place, as could be the case with coal-fired power stations, so it is necessary to build a vast distribution and transmission network”, notes Dario Morales, director of studies at the Acera association, which brings together renewable energy players in Chile.
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