CSP World

While markets like southern Europe, India or US are slowing down, suffering delays or even being halted, some other emerging markets, like Chile or Middle East are gaining attractiveness for Concentrated Solar Power companies.

Chile is a country with a high potential for CSP technology, especially in the northern region where Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) can reach levels of 3000 kWh/m2 per year and where the main industry is the mining business, an energy-hungry industry.

CSP stakeholders are aware of this and first movements have been made to locate offices in the region to gain knowledge of Chilean energy sector and bureaucracy intricacies.

Spain’s based Ibereolica was one of the first companies to move to Chile and has received environmental approval for its first project, Termosolar Pedro de Valdivia , a 360 MW complex worth $2.6 billion. The company has also filed the Environmental Impact Assessment for a second project, Maria Elena, a 400 MW CSP complex to use tower technology with molten salt as heat transfer fluid and thermal storage medium.

Another Spanish company, Enerstar, has announced it intends to invest $700 million in renewable energy at Chile, especially in the CSP sector. First studies for construction of a couple of 240 MW Integrated Solar Combined Cycle are being conducted. The company is currently building a 50 MW plant in Spain, Enerstar Villena.

CSP Today, the company specialized in market reports and events about CSP, has also developed its first series of reports focused on the Latin American market and has planned a conference & expo event to take place at Santiago this summer.

The last company to join the Latin American market has been SolarReserve. The US based company has announced the opening of an office in Santiago, the capital of Chile.

"SolarReserve's expansion into Latin America is a natural next step for our solar power plant development activities given the region's excellent solar resource, expansion of renewable energy policies and robust mining sector. We are thrilled to open an office in Santiago as the headquarters for our Latin America team who will be focused on developing a portfolio of greenfield projects as well as partnering with established energy and mining companies looking to utilize our advanced CSP technology," said Kevin Smith , SolarReserve's CEO.

"Many Latin American countries have experience with renewable energy, particularly wind and hydro power, but solar projects are just now starting to move forward. SolarReserve's solar thermal technology with integrated molten-salt storage is unique in that it can offer a constant supply of electricity critical to mining operations and will also help stabilize the transmission grid as more intermittent renewable technologies reach higher penetration levels," Smith explained.

SolarReserve has expanded its global team with the hire of Jose Lobo as Director of Development for Latin America. Lobo will be based in the Santiago office and will lead SolarReserve's development activities for the region. Lobo has more than 25 years of energy sector experience in power generation, project management and renewable energy project development; He previously held management positions at E-CL and Endesa.

"We are very excited to have Jose join our team," said Tom Georgis Senior Vice President of Development. "He is extremely knowledgeable of the markets we are most interested in and will play a key role leading our expansion throughout the region."

SolarReserve is currently building the Crescent Dunes CSP plant at Nevada, a 110 MW tower type plant with molten salt as HTF and TES.