Featured in Latin Sol-utions – 11-2013

Chiles merchant solar economics

Chile: Chile is emerging as what may be the first major merchant market for solar power in Latin America, thanks to the confidence of a few developers, the power demand of mining companies, and the financial support of multilateral banks. But the limited capacity of the electricity grid could pose some problems.

By

Charles W. Thurston

01 Nov 2013

Since Chile imports three quarters of its energy from Argentina via pipeline, the country could be thought of as an island economy, with high electricity rates – recently as high as $0.25 per kilowatt hour on the spot market – and limited transmission infrastructure.But the massive demand of the $47 billion export mining industry – over …

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