Chilean state urged to take on greater financial role in development of projects
Copper Mine Radomiro Tomic, Region II at Antofagasta, Chile (source: flickr/ matt.hintsa, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
6 Sep 2011
The Chilean government is urged to play a stronger financial role in development of geothermal energy projects in the country, as well as implement other supporting policies such as long-term PPAs and feed-in-tariffs.
Regional paper BN Americas reports that Chilean authorities are asked to participate financially in the development of geothermal projects. This could encourage growth of a domestic industry, so according to IDB energy expert Alberto Levy.
“Around 70% of the investment currently goes toward exploration, drilling the holes and defining the characteristics of the resource. That is a lot of uncertainty for investors, who want to be sure they can recuperate the investment they have made. The state could therefore initially develop the project, and then sell it on later,” Levy told an energy conference organized by IDB in Santiago.
Other policies that could be implemented by authorities include the establishment of long-term power purchase agreements, and feed-in tariffs, according to Levy.
Geothermal energy has been identified as an important future power source for Chile, with official estimates suggesting projects totaling up to 15GW in capacity could be developed across the country.
Chile’s first geothermal plant is set to come online in 2014. Authorities are looking to promote the development of the industry in order to meet the country’s goal of having 20% of its energy supplied by renewable resources by 2020.”
Source: BN Americas
