Chile Speeds Up Zero Carbon Plan, an Industrial Info Market Brief

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In June 2019, the Ministry of Chile signed an agreement with the Chilean subsidiaries of U.S.-based AES Corporation (NYSE: AES), Italian Enel S.p.A. (ENEL. MI) and French Engie S.A. (EPA: ENGI), kicking off what would be the first phase in a plan to completely eliminate coal from the country's generation matrix by 2040. The agreement set a schedule for the decommissioning of eight of the oldest coal-fired generation units in the country, with an aggregated capacity of over one gigawatt (GW), by 2024.

That same month, Engie shuttered its Tocopilla 12 and Tocopilla 13 units (with a total capacity of 171 megawatts). The company plans to shutter the Tocopilla 14 (125 MW) and Tocopilla 15 (132MW) by January 2022.

Engie's 150-MW Mejillones 1 and 175-MW Mejillones units, which were initially planned to be closed in future phases, were included in this first phase and now will be closed before the end of 2024.

In December 2019, Enel closed its 158-MW Tarapacá unit, while AES will close its Ventanas 1 at the end of 2020, and Ventana 2 before the end of 2022.

Finally, Enel announced plans to close the Bocamina 1 by the end of this year, and the 370-MW Bocamina 2 after May 2022.

Click here for the related Chilean coal-fired generation unit reports.

Chile will need to develop more than 1.6 GW of new renewable energy-generation before the end of 2024 to replace this missing capacity. IIR is tracking more than 400 active renewable energy projects in Chile, with an aggregated investment of $41 billion, that are in different phases of planning, engineering or construction. Click here for a list.