Geothermal power in Chile

Chile represents one of the largest undeveloped geothermal areas of the world.^[1] Despite Chile's good economic performance in the late 1980s and 1990s, geothermal energy did not develop, and Chile has been surpassed by other Latin American countries such as El Salvador and Costa Rica in terms of geothermal development and technology. Currently, Chile has only one geothermal power plant.

The first geothermal explorations in Chile were carried out in 1908, by Italians living in the city of Antofagasta, but it was not until 1968 that systematic exploration started in the north of the country. These later explorations occurred amidst a global wave of research and development of geothermal power. The explorations were carried out after an agreement between the Chilean Government and the United Nations Development Programme. State agency CORFO (Production Development Corporation) created a comité to direct and carry out explorations in Chile's northern regions.^[2] These explorations ended in 1976 after the military government headed by Pinochet withdrew Chile from the cooperation program.

High oil prices, unreliability in gas imports from Argentina and a continuously growing electricity demand have led the Chilean governments to further promote new energy sources in the late 1990s and 2000s. New interest in geothermal energy resulted in 2000 in the promulgation of the Law of Geothermal Concessions that regulates exploration and exploitation of geothermal resources.^[3][4]