CORFO supports:
Renewable energy development for ChilePublished: November 4, 2008
The Third International Gathering of Non-Conventional Renewable Energy and Clean Development Mechanisms started today. Attendees include foreign organizations such as the World Bank and the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE) and others.
The event gathers 150 national and foreign investors who will meet with project developers in Chile in about a thousand simultaneous business meetings.
CORFO announced that 14 ERNC initiatives have been met in the short term. They have also obtained the resources to speed up the implementation of projects, in other words, the necessary tools to drive each stage of development starting with pre-investment stage up until the point when they start functioning.
Santiago, October 30, 2008. At the opening of the Third International Meeting of Non-Conventional Renewable Energy (ERNC) and Clean Development Mechanism (MDL) the Chilean Minister of Energy, Marcelo Tokman, and Carlos Álvarez, the Executive Vice-president of CORFO, made important announcements aimed at promoting the development of projects for Non-Conventional Renewable Energy (ERNC). In this event organized by CORFO, national project developers will meet with investors from 18 different countries.
The Government has worked during the last four years, with CORFO and the National Energy Commission (CNE), to develop energy diversification. These efforts have resulted in about 120 wind, hydraulic, geothermal and biomass initiatives in development throughout Chile. Five are already in operation, 9 are being built and the rest are being studied. If all the projects become a reality, this implies over 1.000 MW of installed capacity and an investment of close to US$ 2.000 million.
The 5 initiatives that are already in motion are: the
Lebu wind project, Bío Bío Region, (2.3MW);
Estancia Flora wind farm, in the Maule Region (with a capacity of 150kw);
Embalse Puclaro, Coquimbo Region, with a capacity of 5.4 MW;
Lircay hydroelectric plant, in the Maule Region (19 MW), and the
El Manzano hydroelectric plant, in the Araucanía Region (4.8 MW). It is important to point out that 1 MW is equal to the average energy consumption of 1000 homes. With Lebu and Estancia Flora there are now 4 wind energy projects in Chile (the others are Canela and Alto Baguales).
In light of the positive results, and because it is important to ensure that all the other projects in the different stages of progress come to their completion, an ERNC Center is presently being created to handle more efficiently the identification and transference of technological enterprises currently being developed at a world wide level. It is expected to begin operations during 2009.
"Non-conventional renewable energy is a fast growing sector in the world, and it will become an important part of the energy networks in all countries. Chile is not an exception. Many resources are now being applied, particularly in the developed countries, to drive technologies that can produce this type of energy at low costs when compared to the present sources ", said the CORFO vice-president.
On the other hand, Marcelo Tokman stated that empirical evidence shows that, based on the number of initiatives taking place at the present moment, clean energy projects are competitive. This confirms that, in spite of some difficulties, the potential to generate electricity is huge.
In terms of the
US$ 400 million that were mentioned a few weeks ago, Carlos Alvarez, the Minister of Finance says that they are working hard to design new systems in connection to these resources, among which are long-term credits, credit guarantee funds, support for building associated transmission lines and geothermal exploration.
Presently, CORFO has a
Pre-Investment Program for engineering projects in advanced stages that contributes up to US $160 thousand per project for the studies preceding ERNC initiatives investments that are facing funding difficulties. The total amount available is
US$ 5,2 million, and is financed by the German Cooperation Fund's own resources through the KfW and the National Energy Commission.
There are also two other lines of credit of US$150 million:
CORFO Credit for Non-Conventional Renewable energy CORFO Credit for Efficient Energy. The conditions they offer are favorable in terms of their interest rates, grace periods and debt repayment, and the 15 million dollars for each project.
Lastly, Marcelo Tokman emphasized how much the ERNC has increased the capacity for the entire country in the past few years with its installations, and that "in 2007, 347 megawatts came from renewable energies. Today, if we take into account this year's projects plus those under construction, we will have an additional 300 megawatts. This means that in almost two years it will double the capacity installed by the ERNC. Judging by the number of project developers and investors in this gathering today, it appears that we are surely on the right track."
This third version of the Gathering, which has the World Conference of Climate Change and Energy as a context, will be extended until tomorrow, Friday the 31st. The event includes presentations from world known energy representatives such as Andres Hasselager, Minister of Climate and Energy of Denmark, Antonio Sarmento, expert in tidal power energy of the Technical University of Lisbon, Christoph Sigrist, from the KfW-German Bank, Eduardo Dopazo, of the World Bank, and Carlos Florez, from the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE). During the last day of activities, about one thousand business meeting are expected to take place, simultaneously, among Chilean project developers and investors from 15 different countries. The objective is to create business alliances that will make clean energy projects a reality.
For more info:
www.chilenergy-corfo.com Press Contacts:
Fabiola SamhanTel: (56-9) 8 643 8541
fsamhan@corfo.cl Beatriz PulidoTel: (56-9) 7 608 6921
beatriz.pulido@bm.com