☀️ Chilean Sun

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The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is home to a great many things. The port city of Antofagasta, which over a century later the Bolivians still want returned. Some of the most advanced telescopes mankind has ever built.

Oh, and the highest amount of solar potential of any place in the world.

On account of its altitude, aridity, and sun exposure, northern Chile is Earth’s most solar-primed location. For over a decade now, the country has embraced this clean, renewable energy source as it seeks to decarbonize and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

In June of 2014, a 100-megawatt photovoltaic solar plant went online in the Atacama Desert. At the time, it was the largest in Latin America. A number of nearby smaller solar parks were inaugurated in the months and years following, explaining the soaring rise of Chile’s solar energy production over the last decade.

Indeed, Chile has long since left behind both its regional and global peers in adopting solar energy as the power source of the future. Electricity production from solar has tripled multiple times in fewer than ten years. Private national and foreign firms have teamed up with local universities and researchers to roll out a solar program which will be the world’s envy, guided by the government’s Roadmap to 2050.

How successful has the switch to solar been?

Well, in 2022 Chileans officially got more electricity from renewable energy than coal. Today the country is by far the global leader in solar power utilization, ahead even of more-developed sunny countries like Australia and Spain.

And there remains work to be done; per the Roadmap to 2050, the county has only just reached the point for its solar-power goal.

Another impressive feat for one of Latin America’s most impressive countries.

Comment of the Week 🗣️

Julio shares his enthusiasm for Uruguay’s exemplary governance.

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