Chile Installs South America’s 1st Solar Thermal Plant

January 4th, 2013 by Joshua S Hill

Spanish photovoltaic developer Abengoa has designed and built a 10-megawatt solar thermal plant for Minera El Tesoro, part of the Antofagasta Minerals mining group.

This is the first operational solar thermal plant in South America, and is located in the Antofagasta region of Chile.

The installation is spread over 6 hectares of land and is made up of over a thousand solar thermal collector modules.

The plant is expected to deliver heat every hour of the day thanks in part to the use of thermal energy storage. Given it’s location in the heart of mining country in the region, this is ideal, and Abengoa says it expects the plant to provide enough energy to replace 55% of the diesel fuel currently in use in the mining production.

Latin America’s Solar Future

This news comes hot on the heals of an NPD Solarbuzz report which predicted that Latin America and the Caribbean are set to become hotspots for solar photovoltaic demand in the following few years.

Given the desperate need for developing countries to pick up some of the renewable energy slack first world nations have let slide, news of installations such as these in Latin America is great news.

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Tags: Chile, chile clean energy, Chile solar, Chile Solar Thermal, Latin America, solar thermal plant, solar thermal power plants, south america, south america clean energy, south america solar, South America Solar Thermal

About the Author

Joshua S Hill I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

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johnson

The first Solar Thermal Powr Plant of Latin America was the Agua Prieta II in Mexico… this is the 1st in SOUTH AMERICA.
- http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  The post says South America, not Mexico.
wattleberry

Great. This is the very development we envisaged not long ago whereby previously remote and non-productive territory can be exploited for the first time,bringing prosperity to such regions.
- Richard_Pietrasz
  
  Or, instead of prosperity to those regions, additional wealth to fat cat foreigners (and a few corrupt local government officials) while the region suffers. These big money projects work out this way more often than not.
  - wattleberry
    
    Whatever, but at least it’s bringing into use more of the Earth’s resources, on which we all depend.
  - Ronald Brak
    
    Chile’s sovereign wealth funds are mostly kept outside of the country, so if it makes you feel better Chile is invested in big money projects in other countries.