CHILE'S vast copper mines have an energy problem to match. They consume 39% of the country’s electricity. But most of them are located in the parched north of the country, and Chile’s hydroelectric power is mainly generated in the rain-drenched south.
Plans for a huge new hydroelectric plant in Patagonia, from which energy could be sent north, were shelved earlier this year. A government scheme to unify Chile’s two electricity grids, the SIC (which serves Santiago and the central heartland) and the SING (which supplies the north), will still require electricity to be piped over long distances, which is expensive. Nearby Bolivia refuses to sell natural gas to Chile because of a border dispute dating from the 19th century.
As a result the mines have to get by on a mix of non-Bolivian gas, coal-fired power and diesel—a concoction as expensive as it is dirty. Chile’s mines pay twice as much for their energy as their peers in neighbouring Peru. Fuel can account for up to a fifth of a mine’s operational costs.
Fed-up miners are increasingly taking matters into their own hands and turning to renewables to get their costs...Continue reading
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