Energy and sustainability in Chile: Simulation modelling of low-carbon technologies and energy in buildings

Abstract

Fossil fuels reserves are diminishing rapidly across the world, intensifying the stress on existing reserves due to increased demand. Moreover, the production of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions driven by human activities, in particular the combustion of fossil fuels, presently contributing to 81% of the world primary energy, inflict disastrous impacts on human health, economics and environment of the planet. Increase in GHG concentrations is directly responsible for the rise in the earth average temperature and its associated climate change implications. The Chilean economy grew at a rate of 4% between 2003 and 2015 and is forecast to continue to grow over the coming years. As for most developing countries, pressures from economic and population growth have traditionally forced governments to look at cost-effective options, mainly those exploiting fossil fuel sources, to cope with the increased demand for electricity from households and industry. However, besides the serious concerns on whether the actual strategy is environmentally sustainable, the lack of fossil fuel sources in Chile makes also the country vulnerable to supply disruptions of foreign fossil fuel and energy price volatility, and thus raises concerns over satisfying the country energy demand. Therefore, there is an urgent need to look at sustainable options for energy production and energy saving in Chile, especially since the Chilean government pledged to reduce the country GHG emissions by 30% below 2007 levels by 2030 at the latest Paris climate negotiations in December 2015. The present work is aimed to demonstrate that sustainability in the field of energy can be achieved in a cost effective manner in Chile, through clean energy generation from renewable sources and efficient use of energy in buildings. The energy sector has a key role in the production of environmentally harmful substances. It has thus become crucial for the sustainability of modern societies to switch over of energy systems from conventional to renewables. Solar energy represents an attractive alternative to conventional fossil energy, as it is freely available in abundant and inexhaustible quantity and can make an important contribution towards a sustainable future. The study explores the economic viability of large scale solar technologies for clean electricity generation, in terms of levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) on the Atacama Solar Platform (PSDA) for a solar-solar hybrid energy mix with the objective of evaluating new options for continuous solar electricity delivery.