This past Monday April 2, on Catholic University’s San Joaquin campus, national and international experts presented the latest solar technology developments available in the market for generating electricity from concentrated thermal solar power, together with the opportunities that Chile offers and the advantages and challenges of this kind of system.

The seminar, held by Fraunhofer in collaboration with Catholic University and organized by Rodrigo Escobar, a professor from this same University, and with the support of CORFO (Production Development Corporation) under project 13CEI2-21803, included an outstanding panel of experts, with Dr. Luis Guerreiro, from the University of Évora (Portugal) as a speaker on high temperature thermal storage concepts. Dr. Frank Dinter (FCR-CSET) discussed the worldwide status of CSP and its costs in recent years.  

The panel of experts continued analyzing future developments that can increase even more the advantages of the CSP systems, with such well known people as Professor Jose Miguel Cardemil, from the University of Chile, who presented the future developments of CSP and the importance of the s-CO2 cycles and Professor Rodrigo Escobar, from the Catholic University of Chile, who spoke about the solar-solar hybrid plants (CSP+PV). In conclusion,  Rodrigo Mancilla, Executive Director of CORFO’s Solar Committee, stressed the opportunity that Chile has to become a global leader in CSP and the benefits this technology will have in the country.

Considering that Chile is one of the countries with the world’s highest radiation, learning about the opportunities that the technology offers now and in the future and about the market situation will enable opportunities to be identified for the production of more efficient and sustainable electrical energy in Chile.  

 Dr. Mercedes Ibarra commented that “these kinds of seminars are a great tool for bringing together Chile’s main academic and market players, and to offer and discuss the needs and opportunities that exist now and will exist in the future. At Fraunhofer CST we believe that this event has been a real success judging by the level of the presentations as well as by the level of the public who attended and actively participated in the discussions”.