The imposing 240-meter construction is one of the pillars of the country''s ambitious green energy program that began in 2019 and aims to completely replace fossil fuels by 2040.
The high solar radiation and salts extracted from what is the driest desert on the planet are the ingredients of a powerful energy cocktail to generate and store electricity.
The solar thermal Cerro Dominador, which Chileans compare to Sauron''s tower from The Lord of the Rings, has become a symbol of Chile''s energy revolution against climate change.
"A decade ago, no one would have imagined that more than a third of Chile''s energy would come from the sun and wind before 2030," the former Environment Minister of Chile Marcelo Mena says.
Today 35.4 per cent of the energy generated in Chile is wind and solar, and 37.2 per cent comes from water sources in the National Electric System (SEN), which covers the vast majority of demand.
"Very few countries in the world have been able to truly consolidate a renewable energy industry like Chile," says Marta Alonso, director for South America of Global Energy Services (GES), a global provider of services for the wind and solar industry.
Chile has begun to explore an alternative. Both Cerro Dominador and the Alba Project are powered by so-called solar salts, extracted from the Atacama Desert, composed of potassium nitrate and sodium nitrate.
"The case of the Alba Project is unique in the world. It is the only project that exists of this magnitude outside of a university," explains Diego Pardow, Chilean Minister of Energy.
Solar power in Chile is an increasingly important source of energy. Total installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity in Chile reached 8.36 GW in 2023.[1] Solar energy provided 19.9% of national electricity generation in Chile in 2023, compared to less than 0.1% in 2013.[2]
In October 2015 Chile''s Ministry of Energy announced its "Roadmap to 2050: A Sustainable and Inclusive Strategy", which planned for 19% of the country''s electricity to be from solar energy, 23% wind power, and 29% hydroelectric power.[3]
Because of its good solar resource several international companies have bid record low prices for solar thermal power plants in Chile, including the Copiapó Solar Project bid at $63/MWh by SolarReserve in 2017. If realized this would have been the lowest ever price for a CSP project in the world. Several CSP projects are under development in Chile, but in the absence of technology specific support policies Cerro Dominador is the only one under construction, yet.
In June 2014, the 100-megawatt (MW) Amanecer Solar CAP, a photovoltaic power plant located near Copiapó in the Atacama Desert was inaugurated. It was developed by the company with the same name, Amanecer Solar CAP, and was the largest in Latin America at the time. It is capable of generating 270 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity per year.[10][11]
The 70 MW photovoltaic Salvador Solar Park went online in November 2014, followed by an official inauguration ceremony on 23 January 2015.[12] It was expected to produce 200 GWh of electricity per year. The plant is located approximately 5 kilometres south of El Salvador, in the Atacama region. It is one of the first in the world to supply competitively priced solar energy to the open market without government subsidy.[13]
The 79 MW Pampa Norte PV solar plant began operating in April 2016 at a site 32 kilometres southwest of Taltal in Chile''s Antofagasta Region. It uses approximately 258,000 polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic modules and is capable of generating more than 200 GWh per year.[22] The plant was developed by Enel Green Power and features photovoltaic inverters designed and manufactured by Elettronica Santerno.[17][23]
The 97 MW Carrera Pinto photovoltaic plant is located 60 kilometres from the city of Copiapó in the Atacama Region. The first 20 MW of the plant was connected to the grid in early January 2016, with the remaining 77 MW connected in August 2016. The plant is capable of generating over 260 GWh per year.[24][25]
The 246 MW El Romero single-axis tracking solar photovoltaic plant began operating in November 2016 at Vallenar in the Atacama region, with a 493 GWh annual average output.[26][27] It was the largest solar farm in Latin America when it opened. It uses 776,000 polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic modules. The solar irradiance has been measured at 853 W/m2.[28]
In 2016, SolarPack won an electricity auction by bidding $29.1/MWh;[29] a record low price.[30] In March 2020 PV Magazine reported that Solarpack had begun providing power on 2 March 2020, to the Chilean grid from its 123 MW Granja project, 10 months ahead of the contracted date of 1 January 2021. With that, Solarpack raised its total operating capacity in Chile at the time to 181 MW.[31]
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As the photovoltaic (PV) industry continues to evolve, advancements in Santiago solar thermal energy have become critical to optimizing the utilization of renewable energy sources. From innovative battery technologies to intelligent energy management systems, these solutions are transforming the way we store and distribute solar-generated electricity.
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