By Alternative Latin Investor -- The combination of pro-renewable energy legislation, economic stability and industrial demand are fuelling a vibrant wind power sector in Chile.
The Latin American nation has limited indigenous energy resources, with the exception of hydropower. As a result, the country must import the bulk of its energy needs. Up until 2004 Chile met most of its demand for energy by importing natural gas through an agreement signed in 1995 with neighboring Argentina, which had agreed to supply 22 million cubic meters a day. However, subsidized energy prices in Argentina boosted domestic demand in that country, which consequently saw exports to Chile fall drastically.
Currently Argentina is only sending 10% of the agreed quantity of natural gas to its Andean neighbor. Faced with an energy crisis that was beginning to impact economic growth, Chile was forced to scour the globe for energy sources says Eugenio Chinchon, a Chilean business development manager specializing in renewable energy.
“Chile provides most of the copper in the world. As China has been booming and asking for a lot of minerals, the price of copper has gone up. So they want to produce more but because there is a shortage of energy, they couldn’t produce,” says Chinchon. “Also because of historical reasons we don’t have natural resources to produce energy in the north, and the only way to [run the copper mines] has been gas. But we don’t have gas, so we must buy it from other countries. Our neighbors like Peru and Bolivia have a lot of gas, but because of historical reasons, there is a lot of rivalry and they don’t want to sell us gas. So Chile has to buy liquid gas from the Far East and it’s very expensive. So the prices are going very high and the Chilean government wants to have wind energy.”
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