Chile Previews The Solar-Powered Future

Chile Has So Much Solar Energy It’s Giving It Away for Free

Vanessa Dezem and Javier Quiroga, June 1, 2016 (Bloomberg News)

“Chile’s [770 MW solar capacity has expanded so quickly that producers are] giving electricity away for free…Spot prices reached zero in parts of the country on 113 days through April, a number that’s on track to beat last year’s total of 192 days, according to Chile’s central grid operator…Chile’s increasing energy demand, pushed by booming mining production and economic growth, has helped spur development [that is expected to reach 1.4 GW by the end of 2016]…Now, economic growth is slowing as copper output stagnates…[Energy prices are slumping and solar] power plants are oversupplying regions that lack transmission lines…[Key challenges are that the central grid and the northern grid aren’t connected to each other and areas within the grids] lack adequate transmission capacity…[O]ne region can have too much power, driving down prices because the surplus can’t be delivered to other parts of the country…[The government] plans to build a 3,000-kilometer(1,865-mile) transmission line to link the the two grids by 2017…[and] a 753-kilometer line to address congestion on the northern parts of the central grid, the region where power surpluses are driving prices to zero…” click here for more

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