I´ve very quickly reached the halfway point of my time in Chile, and while I´ve been mostly focused on spending time with family and seeing the sites, my third goal was to learn and write about the state of environmental problems and policy in Chile. Since my last blog post, I´ve visited my grandparents´hometowns of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar, spent a relaxing weekend at the beach, and embarked on a 2 week exploration of the southern lakes region – I´m writing this post from Valdivia. But I´ll save my summaries of these beautiful places for a later post. For now, I´d like to share what I´ve learned about the history of energy resources in Chile from my own research, conversations with locals, and meetings with government officials and industry leaders.
To understand the history of energy development in Chile, we have to go back to the late 1800s, when most South American countries had already become independent, and when Chile, Peru, and Bolivia were fighting against each other in the War of the Pacific. Lasting from April 1879 to October 1883, this war resulted in a Chilean victory, changing Chile´s national borders to pretty much how they are today (with one small territory later given back to Peru). The disputed area was the very northern part of modern day Chile, stretching from Antofagasta up to Arica. When Chile won the war and gained this territory, it moved Peru´s border further north and cut off Bolivia´s access to the ocean.
Because it was such an unexplored region and the treaty wasn´t super clear, this wasn´t the end of border disputes between Chile and Argentina, but the treaty of 1881 gave Argentina ownership of land that was rich with petroleum, leaving Chile with very little petroleum. At that moment in history, Chile was more concerned about winning the north, which was rich in guano which was a key resources used for fertilizer, than controlling the entire southern tip of Patagonia. However, when the Haber Bosch process of artificial nitrogen was invented in Germany in 1909, guano resources became all but obsolete. Petroleum, whether we like it or not, became an extremely important energy resource, and a country´s domestic petroleum resources became an important factor in wealth and political relations on a global scale. Argentina´s share of Patagonia, added to its other petroleum basins, gave it a leg up. Chile, on the other hand, was left with very few petroleum resources. It had similar bad luck with other fossil fuels like coal and natural gas. Today, 70% of Chile´s energy comes from fossil fuels, 70% of which are imported from other countries.
When we look at installed energy capacity in Chile, fossil fuels still make up 57%. Another 29% comes from hydropower, with the remaining 14% from renewables, mostly biomass and wind. Chile relies heavily on hydropower because it is so mountainous and there is a LOT of natural watersheds here, especially in the south…I´ve seen some firsthand. But while hydropower is a lot cleaner than fossil fuels, it often causes a lot of other environmental problems. Building a dam completely changes life for people and animals downstream, and this has already caused a lot of problems in Chile, affecting local populations, wildlife, ecosystem health, and even the ecotourism industry.
One company has already figured out how to do this. I met with the founders of Valhalla, a private energy project that plans to build a huge solar array in the Atacama Desert, which has the highest solar radiation in the world. The problem is not only that the Atacama Desert is far away from Santiago. There is also an intermittency problem – the sun shines during the day, and most of the electricity demand is at nighttime, when everyone comes home from work. But Valhalla has thought of a solution to this too, coming up with a special kind of battery to store the energy until people are ready to use it: water. By linking the solar array to a pumped storage plant on the northern coast, Valhalla will send half of the produced solar energy straight to consumers, while the other half will provide the energy to pump ocean water up a hill to an elevated basin during the day. At night, they will let the water roll back down the hill, generating added electricity for consumers during peak hours. With this model, Valhalla says they will produce the ¨cheapest unsubsidized solar energy in the world.¨ In addition, the northern and central electrical grids are currently in the process of getting connected, so some of the energy produced by Valhalla´s project will be able to serve Santiago. Valhalla has already gone through the government permitting process, and now is just waiting to secure the remaining finances before starting construction. It´s also important to note that they went through a long process to work in partnership with the local community next to their planned pumped storage plant to ensure economic and cultural benefits for the fishing village.
It´s true that Chile has a lot of room for improvement when it comes to renewable energy use and generation, but Valhalla´s project shows that there are already smart people here working on real solutions. In talking with family and friends here, I´ve also seen the cultural appetite for change. People recognize that Chile has the potential to greatly increase its renewable energy load, and that energy demand in Chile will only continue to increase with population growth and concentration in the central region. And I´ve already observed people taking the initiative to practice sustainability and use renewables on a local scale. Just today, I visited a floating restaurant in Valdivia that is completely self sufficient, producing its own electricity with solar panels and using plants onboard to filter water. Next to it, several solar boat taxis were waiting to take people on a river tour of the city.
It´s been a blast to learn about energy and the environment in a country that´s close to my heart, and one that´s had a particularly interesting history shaped by its geography and natural resources. Tomorrow I head to the island of Chiloe, where my ancestors first came 500 years ago when they arrived in Chile, and where I hope to learn about the fishing industry. Then I head to Puerto Varas, an original German settlement that is now a thriving city, before heading back to Santiago. In my next blog post, you´ll see a more complete summary of my time in the southern lakes region.
July 25, 2017 at 10:23 pm
Love it,Emma! Our ancestors came in 1588, so we are one of 70 fundational families in Chile not yet five hundred years?! Do you know whom is behind (owns) the Valhalla proyect? . Enviado desde mi iPhone
> El 24-07-2017, a las 20:53, Navigating Nature escribió: > > >
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