Thursday 8 August 2019

Renewables ‘to make up half of Chile’s energy mix by 2030’

Renewables will make up half of Chile's energy mix by 2030.

That's the prediction made by data and analytics company GlobalData, which says the South American nation recognises the need to step up clean power capacity in order to assure it meets global climate change mitigation and environmental requirements.

In 2018, the share of non-hydro renewable power reached 19% of the country's power mix.

Chilean gas generation is also expected to grow over the next decade, with GlobalData predicting its share of thermal power capacity will swell from 48% in 2018 to 55% by 2030.

Between 2010 and 2018, the nation, which is now a net exporter of electricity, saw consumption of electricity grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.1% due to increased economic activity - it notes it is now increasingly looking to energy storage technologies such as batteries, pumped hydro, molten salts and hydrogen to assist renewables in providing continuous, sustainable and reliable clean power to the grid.

Piyali Das, Power Industry Analyst at GlobalData, said: "Thermal power dominated Chile’s power mix in 2018 with a share of 52.7% of the total installed capacity, followed by hydro and renewable with a share of 28.1% and 19.1% respectively.

"In the renewable energy mix the major contributors are solar photovoltaic and wind with shares of 50.8% and 33.8% respectively in 2018."