Renewable Energy
Concentrating Solar Power in the Atacama Desert ██ By Pablo Correa
T
he Atacama Desert is one of the driest, warmest and sunniest places on earth, analogous to the Sunbelt of the US. Despite its excellent conditions for developing solar technologies, this movement has yet to take hold in the region. To better understand the Chilean reality in the solar market and the potential development of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP), it serves to mention the landscape of Chile itself.
Chile is a long and narrow strip of land, located in South America. The country offers a rich array of climates and terrain. Continental Chile is approximately 4.200 kilometers in length and 300 kilometers in width at its widest point (26° S latitude) with an average of 200 kilometers of width throughout the rest of country. The country has three distinct zones. Close to the Pacific Ocean the weather is coastal, due to the Cordillera de la Costa (a mountain range with an average elevation of 1.000-1.500
meters) acting as an umbrella for the inner valleys, blocking the passage of coastal moisture, thus causing high cloudiness close to the sea. On the east side, lies the Cordillera de los Andes (with an elevation of 3.000-7.000 meters) prime for cold and cloudy days. Located at the center, between both mountain ranges, lie the inner valleys, which feature wide land with soft slopes and good terrain. From northern to southern Chile, there are many types of climates, but the noticeable climates are desert-like and sunny in the north, temperate in the center with distinctive seasons and cold and rainy in the south. Compared with Spain (Andalucía, Granada - Andasol) and North America (Southern California and Nevada – SEGS, Nevada Solar One) the locations of the main CSP plants, Chile has similar weather and soil characteristics (except at 30° S latitude as there are different levels of rain and humidity). The best location, without a doubt, is in the heart of the Atacama Desert. The Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) is around 3.300 kWh/ m2 yearly (measured by a meteorological station with pyrheliometer and solar tracker at around 25ºS latitude, which is not the ideal site). This DNI is much better than the measures for California and Spain (for October and November we have DNI values up to 1.100 W/
19