Over the last few years Chile has invested a huge amount in its solar electric power energy electricity sector that the nation is currently producing a lot more electric power from the sun’s rays than it make full use of.
Solar electric power energy provided to Chile’s principal main grid has quadrupled in total capacity since 2013. The main grid is currently fed by 29 solar energy farms, and an additional 15 are projected for construction in the upcoming months or years.
A recent study indicates that selling prices on solar electric power fell to absolutely nothing for 113 days of the year through April last year, as well as plenty more days of totally free solar farm electricity are predicted to take place. Getting zero cost solar electric power is a big gain for home owners, but industry experts are anxious with regards to exactly how this may effect the marketplace, given that shareholders and owners of solar electric power plants may very well begin to lose money.
Although Chile has not one but two electrical power networks in operation: a central main grid and a northern grid, they are not linked and infrastructure in several locations of each grid is very poor, so there are areas where the grids quite simply are unable to transmit as much electric power. Thanks to the age-old basic principle of supply and demand, several regions end up with much more electrical power than they require, forcing charges lower, whilst many other regions are under-serviced. In fact districts being served by the northern section of the main grid, electric power surpluses already have pushed the selling price to zero and this year’s numbers are on track to match or surpass last year’s count of totally free solar electric power days, which actually was 192. At the same time, regions under-serviced by the main grid are encountering higher than the norm charges.
Experts are worried about the long term consequences of the huge solar electric power market expansion, without having the crucial national infrastructure improvements to take care of the expanded capacity. As Carlos Barria, former boss of the government’s renewable energy department told Bloomberg: “[President] Michelle Bachelet’s government has set the energy sector as a priority but planning has been focused in the short term when it is necessary to have long term plans to solve these type of issues.”
Chile is however, reacting to the requirement for improved electrical power national infrastructure. Development is ongoing on a 3,000 kilometer transmission line to join the two grids by the end of 2017. A different 753km transmission line is likewise under construction, intended to relieve congestion in the northern areas of the main grid, which is where surplus solar electric power is forcing selling prices all the way down to nothing.
SOURCE: Bloomberg