Chile’s Energy Transformation Is Powered by Wind, Sun and Volcanoes<br />“We see renewables as a train that nobody can stop.”<br />Even Argentina, something of a laggard in Latin America when it comes to clean energy, last year invited foreign companies to bid on renewable energy projects<br />and declared 2017 to be the “year of renewables,” setting a goal of relying on clean sources for 20 percent of its electricity needs by 2025, up from the current 2 percent.<br />“These indigenous towns that have few revenue sources and jobs, the natural tendency is that they disappear when the last elder dies.”<br />While Latin America’s enormous hydropower projects have resulted in calamitous floods, large-scale displacement of local populations<br />and environmental damage, the region’s wind, solar and geothermal projects have encountered little resistance from neighboring communities.<br />Chile is advancing in its goals for reliance on renewable energy, with South America’s<br />first geothermal plant and a constellation of solar and wind farms.<br />“This is the main reason nonconventional renewables, meaning wind, solar<br />and geothermal, have started to take off, especially in the last five years,” Ms. Elizondo said.
