Chile: Overview of the Cerro Pabellón Geothermal Project & of Geothermal in South America

Plant in Chile Opens South America’s Doors to Geothermal Energy (Inter Press Service)

Cerro Pabellón could open the door to geothermal development not only in this country but in South America.

Credit: Marianela Jarroud/IPS

Chile, a land of volcanoes and geysers, has started building South America’s first geothermal plant, which would open a door to this kind of renewable energy in this country that depends largely on fossil fuels.

The Cerro Pabellón geothermal project is “immensely important for the Chilean state, which started geothermal exploration and drilling over 40 years ago,” but no initiative had taken concrete shape until now, Marcelo Tokman, general manager of the state oil company, ENAP, told IPS.

Located in the rural municipality of Ollagüe, 1,380 km north of Santiago, in the Andes highlands in the region of Antofagasta, Cerro Pabellón “will not only be the first geothermal plant in Chile and South America, but will also be the first in the world to be built at 4,500 meters above sea level,” Tokman added.

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