As renewable energy gets cheaper in Chile, the country’s copper miners-and the environment-are seeing the benefits.
According to Bloomberg Businessweek “massive renewable energy projects are powering Chilean mines” as the costs of supplying electricity from solar, wind or hydro keep falling.
According to the article “Chile has little in the way of fossil fuels, leading it to rely on imports and making electricity there extremely expensive. In 24 of the last 30 years, the country’s energy prices were higher than the world average.”
But a new law in 2013 mandating that 20% of Chile’s energy come from renewable sources by 2025 has spurred a surge in clean energy investment.
And Chile’s geography helps. The country’s Atacama desert receives more solar radiation than almost any other spot on Earth. While winds blowing in from the Pacific coast and the Andes Mountains make it perfect for wind power.
“Much of the new renewable capacity is being used by the mining industry. Mines represent about a third of Chile’s overall power usage, and electricity and fuel costs combined to make up 11 percent of total mining costs for the country’s 21 largest mines in 2017.
With prices for solar energy falling more than 60 percent from 2014 through the first half of this year, many mining operations see investing in renewables as a way to lower their energy bills. Some, including state-owned copper producer Codelco, have invested in their own solar and wind projects.
More commonly, producers have signed power-purchase agreements with third-party renewable energy companies, whose plants are sometimes hundreds of kilometers away.