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Chile expects US$200m in geothermal investments until 2012

Chile expects US$200m in geothermal investments until 2012 MP 3 drilling site, Chile (source: Magma Energy)
Alexander Richter 27 Aug 2010

Chile's government expects more than US$200m in geothermal investments over the next two years and will grant 50 new concessions next year and 120 in the following two years.

Reported from South America, “Chile’s government expects to see more than $200 million in investments in geothermal energy exploration and development over the next two years, Energy Minister Ricardo Raineri said Thursday.

As Chile is one of the most seismically active nations on the planet, with frequent earthquakes and dotted with volcanoes from north to south, the potential for harnessing the earth’s heat for geothermal energy is sizable.

The government’s goal is to grant 50 new geothermal concessions over the next year and then 120 in the following two years, said Raineri, who added that just in the next two years “these concessions will mean over $200 million in investments.”

There are currently 24 concession for geothermal exploration and six concessions for geothermal exploitation.

“With these measures we’re starting a new era of geothermal [energy] in Chile, considering that we aspire to have 20% of our power grid supplied with energy from renewable sources by 2020,” he added.

Raineri said that in the coming days he will send a bill to Congress that looks to develop the geothermal industry by eliminating obstacles and by easing the process for obtaining exploration and exploitation concessions.

The Andean nation’s most advanced geothermal project is being developed by Enel Chile, a unit of Italian power utility Enel SpA (ENEL.MI).

The so-called Apacheta geothermal project in northern Chile is aiming to provide 40-megawatts of geothermal electricity in 2014 to the northern SING power grid.

Most of Chile’s booming copper mining industry is located in northern Chile and is connected to the SING grid.

The Apacheta project is being developed in a joint-venture called Geotermica del Norte S.A., with Enel holding 51%, Chilean state oil and gas company Empresa Nacional del Petroleo SA, or ENAP, holding 46%, and state copper-mining company Corporacion Nacional del Cobre, or Codelco holding the remaining 3%.”

Source: Wall Street Journal