Chile’s Energy Transformation Is Powered by Wind, Sun and Volcanoes
“We see renewables as a train that nobody can stop.”
Even Argentina, something of a laggard in Latin America when it comes to clean energy, last year invited foreign companies to bid on renewable energy projects
and declared 2017 to be the “year of renewables,” setting a goal of relying on clean sources for 20 percent of its electricity needs by 2025, up from the current 2 percent.
“These indigenous towns that have few revenue sources and jobs, the natural tendency is that they disappear when the last elder dies.”
While Latin America’s enormous hydropower projects have resulted in calamitous floods, large-scale displacement of local populations
and environmental damage, the region’s wind, solar and geothermal projects have encountered little resistance from neighboring communities.
Chile is advancing in its goals for reliance on renewable energy, with South America’s
first geothermal plant and a constellation of solar and wind farms.
“This is the main reason nonconventional renewables, meaning wind, solar
and geothermal, have started to take off, especially in the last five years,” Ms. Elizondo said.
