The Chilean Energy Ministry and CORFO announced the winner of the International contest for the first Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant on Chile and Latin-America.
The Chilean Energy Ministry and CORFO announced the winner of the International contest for the first Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant on Chile and Latin-America.
During the evaluation process there were analyzed three proposals from 2 of most important companies in the CSP market, Abengoa Solar and Solar Reserve. Finally, the Abengoa Project’s Cerro Dominador was the winner, located in Antofagasta.
The CSP plant will have a capacity of 110 MW and 17.5 hours of thermal storage with capacity factor upper than 80%. The total investment reaches US$ 1,000 million. A total of 10,600 mirrors will be lined on a round surface of 3.5 kilometers. Mirrors reflect the solar light onto a 243 meters tower filled with molten salt.
The Energy Minister Jorge Bunster said that having a CSP plat will bring many benefits to the country: “It will be able using the natural recourses of Chile, it will allow diversification of the energy matrix and will bring us more independence at the same time to reduce emission of GHG”.
At the same time, the vice-president of CORFO Hernan Cheyre stressed the importance of the NCRE in a more innovative context that Chile requires: “This Government has strongly supported the NCRE development. We are very excited on announcing this project; Chile is a very rich country on these sources and we must to give steps for more innovation”.
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