New legislation aims to speed up development in Chile
The Chilean Senate approves legislation changing the procedure on granting concessions for renewable energy projects in the hope to accelerate development.
As reported earlier this week, the Chilean Senate has approved legislation that will change the procedure for the granting of concession in the hope to speed up geothermal development in Chile.
Currently legal battles by native groups opposing development have delayed development efforts.
Chile faces a variety of pricing structures for electricity, from $0.07/ kWh in the South to more than $0.20/ kWh in the North, where most of the mining operations can be found.
Therefore adaptations to the regulatory framework were necessary to simplify the process of granting power transmission projects.
It is estimated that there currently is a delay of 3-6 years in development due to the difficulties of the concession procedure.
While there has been some opposition, the new agreement in the Senate will allow the company to move faster and ensure progress of non-conventional renewable energies, e.g. run-off river hydro, wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and tidal energy projects.
Source: PiensaGeotermia (in Spanish)