Shahriyar Nasirov

Solar PV Planning Toward Sustainable Development in Chile

Over the past decade, the promotion of renewable energy projects in Chile, especially solar energy projects, has become increasingly important, as energy dependence from foreign fossil fuels has increased and concerns regarding climate change continue to grow, posing a significant challenge to the local economy. Even though recent developments toward a more sustainable energy matrix in Chile have significantly increased the investment in the solar energy sector, social and environmental fragilities, combined with the lack of well-functioning institutions and the historical marginalization of indigenous communities who have been affected by several energy projects, result in gradually increasing conflictive situations. Unless proper mechanisms are designed and implemented to rapidly and correctly address these challenges, Chile could miss the opportunities that solar energy projects can provide to the development of its communities and to the economic growth of its regions. This article studies solar photovoltaics planning in Chile, focusing on the recent developments and the main challenges ahead, and proposes policy recommendations for effectively addressing these challenges.

Solar PV Planning Toward Sustainable Development in Chile: Challenges and Recommendations

In the last decade, the importance of solar energy sources in Chile has increased significantly as energy dependence raises and concerns regarding climate change grow, posing an important threat to its economy. The Chilean government recognises that exploiting its abundant potential of solar energy could be an important opportunity to address stable economic growth, energy security, and fulfil environmental goals. Recent developments toward sustainable solar PV planning have accelerated the growth process and investment opportunities in the field. However, to date, numerous policy challenges still exist. This paper studies solar PV planning in Chile, pointing on recent developments and remaining challenges. It also gives important recommendations for effectively addressing these challenges.

Chile: Paving the way for sustainable energy planning

ABSTRACT Over the last 20 years, economy of Chile grew faster than any other country in South America, thanks to its rigorous economic and political systems and its integration to the global economy. Nonetheless, Chile faces the continuing challenge of finding additional energy supplies to support its economic growth. The country has almost no fossil fuel resources and depends heavily on external sources that accounts for around 60% of its energy needs. However, this may change in the near future, as Chile has started developing its huge potential of sustainable energy sources. This paper examines strategically important energy alternatives for Chile, including energy efficiency (EE) programs, large hydro projects, renewable energy, and nuclear power, focusing on recent developments and remaining challenges. It also gives some recommendations providing alternatives to remove the obstacles.

Renewable energy transition: a market-driven solution for the energy and environmental concerns in Chile

Chile is undergoing a remarkable energy matrix transition to renewable energy. Renewable energies are expanding extraordinarily fast, exceeding earlier predictions. As a result, the country is expected to meet its 2025 goal of generating 20% of its electricity from renewable energy sources quite before. Chile has become one of the first countries in the world with subsidy-free markets, where renewable projects compete directly with other conventional sources. Favorable market conditions and successful policy reforms were keys to fostering this renewable energy development. Although the country has achieved a substantial growth in renewable energy investment in a relatively short period of time, this optimism should be treated with caution. A successful transition requires a combination of a clear decision making, persistent and consistent government policies, and a clear commitment to tackling challenges to accommodate renewable energy in the power system. In this context, this paper analyses the Chilean renewable industry and the required government policies to succeed in this transition. For this purpose, we identify several critical factors that have attracted and that could attract investment to the renewable energy sector and propose key recommendations to effectively address the major challenges faced for the future development of the industry.

Assessment of Barriers and Opportunities for Renewable Energy Development in Chile

Chile has become increasingly dependent on energy imports and its energy demand has grown exponentially in the past decade, impacting the environment and the production costs in the economy. In fact, electricity prices have doubled and it is expected that they will soar in the next decade if Chile does not find a solution for its dependence from imported energy resources. Recent developments, particularly improvements in the regulatory framework and incentives for renewables, have accelerated the growth process and investment opportunities of Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs). However, RETs have faced a number of constraints affecting their penetration. In this paper, we review the existing opportunities and also identify and rank the major barrier categories for the development of RETs in the Chilean context. For this purpose, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique has been utilized for ranking the barriers based on experts’ opinions (selected from academia and industry).

An assessment of the implementation of renewable energy sources in the light of concerns over Chilean policy objectives

ABSTRACT In recent years, the development of renewable energies in the electricity market in Chile has gained significant attention as a key alternative for energy sources diversification and meeting three key policy objectives: energy availability, environmental protection, and social-economic development. This study aims to assess various renewable energy sources in order to select suitable sources to accomplish the different policy goals in a country like Chile. For this purpose, a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) method is employed to evaluate the relative importance of policy objectives. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to build various different policy scenarios measuring the impact of variations on the current weights of the decision criteria. The results show that solar, wind, and small hydro are the preferred sources in the Chilean renewable energy portfolio, maximizing the objective of meeting the three policy goals at the same time.