Chile Has So Much Solar Energy It’s Giving It Away for Free

[Judi Lynn]

Chile Has So Much Solar Energy It’s Giving It Away for Free
by
Vanessa Dezem
at vanessadezem

Javiera Quiroga
at JavieraQuiroga

June 1, 2016 — 6:00 PM CDT

Spot prices reached zero for 113 days this year through April

Solar power on Chile’s central grid quadrupled since 2013

Chile’s solar industry has expanded so quickly that it’s giving electricity away for free.

Spot prices reached zero in parts of the country on 113 days through April, a number that’s on track to beat last year’s total of 192 days, according to Chile’s central grid operator. While that may be good for consumers, it’s bad news for companies that own power plants struggling to generate revenue and developers seeking financing for new facilities.

The main culprit is the northern part of the country, in the Atacama desert. Chile’s increasing energy demand, pushed by booming mine production and economic growth, helped spur the development of 29 solar farms, with another 15 planned, on the country’s central power grid. Now the nation faces slowing demand for energy as copper production slows amid a global glut, and those power plants are oversupplying a region that lacks transmission lines to distribute the electricity elsewhere.

“Investors are losing money,” said Rafael Mateo, chief executive officer of Acciona SA’s energy unit, which is investing $343 million in a 247-megawatt project in the region that will be one of Latin America’s largest. “Growth was disordered. You can’t have so many developers in the same place.”

A key issue is that Chile has two main power networks, the central grid and the northern grid, which aren’t connected to each other. There are also areas within the grids that lack adequate transmission capacity.

That means one region can have too much power, driving down prices because the surplus can’t be delivered to other parts of the country, according to Carlos Barria, former chief of the government’s renewable-energy division and a professor at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, in Santiago.

More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-01/chile-has-so-much-solar-energy-it-s-giving-it-away-for-free

[nationalize the fed]

1. k&r now what could possibly be done with excess solar energy?

Make the greenest fuel on the planet.



How much does a Kg of H2 cost when the electricity is FREE?

Spot prices reached zero in parts of the country on 113 days through April, a number that’s on track to beat last year’s total of 192 days, according to Chile’s central grid operator.

Solar Hydrogen- the fuel of the future is now

[JDPriestly]

2. The delivery of energy is our next big challenge.

The US could have lots of solar power from the Southwest if only we worked together as a nation on the delivery and storage of that energy.

Much of America knows nothing about the Southwest and California.

Kind of a shame. The Southwest's capacity for producing solar energy is a missed opportunity as we see in Chile.

[silverweb]

3. We could do this, too, except for corporate greed.

[hunter]

4. People speak as this is a good and amazing thing...

... to me it seems much more like farmers throwing food away as people starve because prices are too low.

The actual costs of solar power, including the environmental costs, are being neglected.

Ultimately these "free electricity" days will be harmful to solar development.

Solar, as it is currently being installed and financed, will not support the high energy industrial society we are accustomed to. Even nations like Germany that have supported aggressive solar and wind development still rely almost entirely on fossil fuels to power their heavy industry.

I'm thinking especially about the increase in air-conditioning worldwide. How much would an air-conditioner really cost if one had to pay for the solar power systems and some kind of storage to keep cooling into the night?

What if air-conditioners were taxed at a rate that would pay for non-carbon energy sources and storage? Would they be affordable?

[mackdaddy]

5. Solar is best when it is installed where the energy is used.

These large remote solar installs are better than coal plants, but are still cash cows for the central utilities, and require the large investments for the transportation infrastructure. A significant portion of the energy generated is also lost in the transportation wiring and transformers.

Smaller rooftop or parking lot installations are distributed, and have a smaller effect on the distribution system since the energy is captured/produced close to where it is needed and consumed.

The problem in this case is the large installs for a specific industrial use, not close to any other consumers.