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Coal’s share of Chile’s electricity output fell to a fresh monthly low of 11.7% in October 2024 as hydro generation recovered and new wind, solar and battery storage facilities helped displace fossil fuels.
The context: The South American nation is phasing out coal faster than any other developing economy thanks in part to its robust environmental regulations, former environment minister Marcelo Mena-Carrasco told The Progress Playbook recently.
Chile’s rapid transition was kickstarted by community opposition to traditional power projects in the early 2010s, which ultimately prompted the government to introduce a carbon tax and emissions standards for coal-fired power plants. Now, the country is a world leader in the integration of solar energy and the deployment of large-scale battery storage facilities.
The latest: In the first 10 months of 2024, coal’s share of the mix was 15.8%, according to data collated by energy research group Ember. That’s down from 43.6% as recently as 2016.
All renewables accounted for 66.8% of generation, with solar at 20.9% and wind 12.8%. Fossil fuels comprised 33.2% of the mix — a 6 percentage point decline from 2023 and a 33.7 percentage point fall from 2016 levels.
At one point on October 17, the share of renewables in the country’s power mix reached 95.3%, according to data from industry association Generadoras Chile.
Leading the way: Chile is on track to get to over 90% renewable power on an annual basis by 2030, according to modelling by the International Energy Agency. That places it among the frontrunners in the transition to power systems dominated by variable renewables.
The government plans to hold a series of auctions to bring on new generating capacity and eliminate coal from the mix by the end of the decade, and a wave of big battery installations will help smooth the path forward and alleviate grid congestion.
In Chile’s north, Spanish company Grenergy Renovables recently reached financial close on the first phase of the world’s largest battery project. The Oasis de Atacama facility will have 4.1 gigawatt hours (GWh) of storage capacity when complete in 2026. It’ll store surplus energy from Grenergy’s solar plants.
Across the country, there’s currently 477MW / 2GWh of storage capacity already in operation, plus another 468MW / 1.8GWh in the commissioning phase and 1.9GW / 7.1GWh under construction, per Generadoras Chile. A further 8.1GW / 39.8GWh worth of potential storage projects are undergoing environmental assessments.
Meanwhile, 3.5GW of new solar is currently under construction, along with 685MW of wind and 484MW of hybrid solar-plus-storage facilities, the association says.
