Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

represents one of the largest undeveloped

geothermal Geothermal is related to energy and may refer to: * Geothermal energy, useful energy generated and stored in the Earth * Geothermal activity, the range of natural phenomena at or near the surface, associated with release of the Earth's internal he ...

areas of the world. Despite Chile's good economic performance in the late 1980s and 1990s,

geothermal energy Geothermal energy is thermal energy extracted from the crust (geology), crust. It combines energy from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay. Geothermal energy has been exploited as a source of heat and/or electric power for m ...

did not develop, and Chile has been surpassed by other

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

n countries such as

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

and

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

in terms of geothermal development and technology. Currently, Chile has only one geothermal power plant. The first geothermal explorations in Chile were carried out in 1908, by

Italians Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. ...

living in the city of

Antofagasta Antofagasta () is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2015 census, the city has a population of 402,669. Once claimed by Bolivia follo ...

, but it was not until 1968 that systematic exploration started in the north of the country. These later explorations occurred amidst a global wave of research and development of geothermal power. The explorations were carried out after an agreement between the Chilean Government and the

United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development. The UNDP emphasizes on developing local capacity towar ...

. State agency

CORFO The Production Development Corporation (CORFO, from ) is a Chilean governmental organization that was founded in 1939 by President Pedro Aguirre Cerda to promote economic growth in Chile. Originally, CORFO was responsible for the creation of ...

(Production Development Corporation) created a comité to direct and carry out explorations in Chile's northern regions. These explorations ended in 1976 after the

military government A military government is any government that is administered by a military, whether or not this government is legal under the laws of the jurisdiction at issue or by an occupying power. It is usually administered by military personnel. Types of m ...

headed by

Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader of the military junta, which i ...

withdrew Chile from the cooperation program. High oil prices, unreliability in gas imports from Argentina and a continuously growing electricity demand have led the Chilean governments to further promote new energy sources in the late 1990s and 2000s. New interest in geothermal energy resulted in 2000 in the promulgation of the Law of Geothermal Concessions that regulates exploration and exploitation of geothermal resources.Alfredo Lahsen, Fabián Sepúlveda, Juan Rojas and Carlos Palacio
Present Status of Geothermal Exploration in Chile
Proceedings World Geothermal Congress 2005

Cerro Pabellón power plant

As of , Cerro Pabellón is the only geothermal power plant in the country, the first in South America, and the highest-altitude plant of its kind in the world, at 4,500

metres above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level v ...

. The facility, inaugurated in September 2017, is located in the

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of , which increases to if the barre ...

, in the

Ollagüe Ollagüe () or Ullawi () is a massive andesite stratovolcano in the Andes on the Bolivia–Chile border, within the Antofagasta Region of Chile and the Potosí Department, Potosi Department of Bolivia. Part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the A ...

district of

Antofagasta Region The Antofagasta Region (, ) is one of Chile's Administrative divisions of Chile, sixteen first-order administrative divisions. Being the second-largest region of Chile in area, it comprises three provinces, Antofagasta Province, Antofagasta, El ...

. It is composed of two units with a gross

installed capacity Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, maximum effect or gross capacity,joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between Enel Green Power Chile —the local unit of the Italian corporation Enel— and Chilean state-owned oil and gas company Enap.

Exploration and projects

Chile's main areas of geothermal activity are located in the Andes of the Far North and in the south-central areas of the country. Geothermal systems in Chile are associated with volcanoes, so areas lacking significant volcanism like

Magallanes Region The Magallanes Region (), officially the Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region () or Magallanes and the Chilean Antarctica Region in English, is one of Chile's 16 first order administrative divisions. It is the southernmost, largest, and sec ...

or Norte Chico have limited power producing capacity. The main areas with potential are, from north to south: Puchuldiza, Apacheta,

El Tatio El Tatio is a geothermal field with many geysers located in the Andes Mountains of northern Chile at above mean sea level. It is the third-largest geyser field in the world and the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. Various meanings have bee ...

-La Torta, Calabozos,

Nevados de Chillán Nevados de Chillán is a group of stratovolcanoes located in the Andes of Ñuble Region, Central Chile, and is one of the most active volcanoes in the region. It consists of three overlapping peaks, Cerro Blanco (Volcán Nevado) in the northwe ...

and Cordón Caulle. In 2005 the National Commission of Energy was considering the starting of three 100

MWe The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named in honor o ...

projects in the next 10 years, and in 2011 Energy Minister

Rodrigo Álvarez Zenteno Rodrigo Alejandro Álvarez Zenteno (born 30 July 1966) is a Chilean politician and lawyer who served as Minister of Energy during the first government of Sebastián Piñera Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique (; 1 December 1949 – 6 ...

said Chile had the potential to produce between 6,000 and 112,000 megawatts of geothermal energy. A project located in the concession area called San Gregorio, which is being explored by Geoglobal Energy Chile (GGE), is likely to be the first geothermal project to be completed in Chile. The site has potential for 75 MW, and the company submitted it's EIA in March 2012, with a plan to come online in early 2016.

El Tatio

In September 2009, a failed prospecting drill for geothermal exploitation in the (1960's) Nº 10 well near the

area, by the Geotérmica del Norte consortium - formed by the Chilean state owned ENAP and

Codelco The National Copper Corporation of Chile (), abbreviated as Codelco, is a Chilean state-owned mining company and the largest copper mining company in the world. It was formed in 1976 from foreign-owned copper companies that were nationalised in 1 ...

Mining companies in association with Italian state owned

ENEL Enel S.p.A. is an Italian multinational manufacturer and distributor of electricity and gas. Enel was first established as a public body at the end of 1962, and then transformed into a limited company in 1992. In 1999, following the liberali ...

- caused a 60-meter high artificial fumarole to develop, with the company unable to seal it for several weeks. The eruption of the fumarole was followed by strong subterranean noises, and a notable decrease of all but the most active geysers in the area. This prompted Corema,

's Environmental Corporation to paralyze all prospecting activities in the zone on October 2, 2009. On October 4 Geotérmica del Norte announced that the fumarole was under control. The day before, a failed attempt to close the well led to strong subterranean noises and Carabineros had to evacuate tourists and the protesters that had gathered at the location. The exploration of El Tatio is controversial, because the area is a major

tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural beaut ...

. The site receives over 100.000 visitors per year, and is the principal attraction of nearby

San Pedro de Atacama San Pedro de Atacama is a Chilean town and commune in El Loa Province, Antofagasta Region. It is located east of Antofagasta, some 106 km (60 mi) southeast of Calama and the Chuquicamata copper mine, overlooking the Licancabur volcan ...

. The town's mayor (

alcalde ''Alcalde'' (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and Administration (government), administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor (position), corregidor, the presiding officer o ...

), Sandra Berma, condemned the ecological impact of the operation and stressed that the geysers are in an

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

zone that "our people put value on and ur peopleshow to the world".

Tolhuaca-Curacautín

Since 2007 the Chilean company of American capital Geotermia del Pacífico is exploring a concession right near the town of

Curacautín Curacautín, which means "Gathering Stone" in Mapudungun, is a Communes of Chile, commune and List of cities in Chile, city in the Chilean province of Malleco Province, Malleco. Curacautín is located 90 kilometres northeast of Temuco, in a valley ...

for building a

geothermal power plant Geothermal power is electricity generation, electrical power generated from geothermal energy. Technologies in use include dry steam power stations, flash steam power stations and binary cycle power stations. Geothermal electricity generation i ...

with support of

. Geotermia del Pacífico's studies show that two geothermal fields near Curacautín could be used for energy production with combined capacity of supplying 36,000 homes in 2010. One of the geothermal areas to be developed are located close to the Tolhuaca hotsprings and the other in Río Blanco Springs.CHILE COULD HAVE GEOTHERMAL ENERGY BY 2010
Santiago Times

Law of Geothermal Concessions

The Law of Geothermal Concessions (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

: ''Ley de Concesiones de Energía Geotérmica'') is a Chilean law that regulates

since 2000. The law deals with geothermal concessions, tenders, security, ownership relations the role of the state in relation to geothermal energy. It is established that any Chilean or

legal person In law, a legal person is any person or legal entity that can do the things a human person is usually able to do in law – such as enter into contracts, lawsuit, sue and be sued, ownership, own property, and so on. The reason for the term "''le ...

established according to Chilean laws may request, or participate in a tender for a geothermal concession. According to the law superficial ownership and exploitation rights are distinct. Concession rights are divided into exploration and exploitation ones, and the general geometry of concessions are established. The law does not deal with geothermal water being used for health-care or touristic purposes. The law, Nº 19.657, was published in the Diario Oficial on January 7 of 2000.

References

External links

National Energy CommissionEnergy information ChileMining MinistryEnergy generation projects in Chile"Law of Geothermal Concessions"
{{Renewable energy by country