Chile Has So Much Solar Energy It’s Giving It Away for Free

[Judi Lynn]

Chile Has So Much Solar Energy It’s Giving It Away for Free
by
Vanessa Dezem
at vanessadezem

Javiera Quiroga
at JavieraQuiroga

June 1, 2016 — 6:00 PM CDT

Spot prices reached zero for 113 days this year through April

Solar power on Chile’s central grid quadrupled since 2013

Chile’s solar industry has expanded so quickly that it’s giving electricity away for free.

Spot prices reached zero in parts of the country on 113 days through April, a number that’s on track to beat last year’s total of 192 days, according to Chile’s central grid operator. While that may be good for consumers, it’s bad news for companies that own power plants struggling to generate revenue and developers seeking financing for new facilities.

The main culprit is the northern part of the country, in the Atacama desert. Chile’s increasing energy demand, pushed by booming mine production and economic growth, helped spur the development of 29 solar farms, with another 15 planned, on the country’s central power grid. Now the nation faces slowing demand for energy as copper production slows amid a global glut, and those power plants are oversupplying a region that lacks transmission lines to distribute the electricity elsewhere.

“Investors are losing money,” said Rafael Mateo, chief executive officer of Acciona SA’s energy unit, which is investing $343 million in a 247-megawatt project in the region that will be one of Latin America’s largest. “Growth was disordered. You can’t have so many developers in the same place.”

A key issue is that Chile has two main power networks, the central grid and the northern grid, which aren’t connected to each other. There are also areas within the grids that lack adequate transmission capacity.

That means one region can have too much power, driving down prices because the surplus can’t be delivered to other parts of the country, according to Carlos Barria, former chief of the government’s renewable-energy division and a professor at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, in Santiago.

More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-01/chile-has-so-much-solar-energy-it-s-giving-it-away-for-free

Environment & Energy:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1127102187

[JimDandy]

1. This is why govenments, not corporations, must be the entities responsible for providing

necessary infrastructure such as power networks.

Without a profit motive involved, the costs of infrastructure are shared and the benefits can be distributed equally.