ALTHOUGH protests in Chile have led the nation to withdraw from hosting the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25), its ambitious plans for a renewable energy future continue. This dramatic image of a solar facility, contrasting starkly with the ancient sand of the Atacama desert, shows how those intentions are becoming reality.
These panels are in the Solar Jama plant, along the coast from Chile’s capital, Santiago. It is located thousands of metres above sea level, and the arid desert air contains very little water vapour, allowing more sunlight to reach the solar cells.
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The country’s green energy credentials were dealt a blow last week when it pulled out as host of COP25. The move followed anti-government protests about inequality and rising prices. Chile had seemed like a perfect home for the conference in the year climate change protests went mainstream: in the past 10 years, the country has suffered mega-droughts and its worst ever wildfires.
Chile aims to get 20 per cent of its power from renewables by 2025, rising to 70 per cent by 2050, the year by which it has pledged to become carbon neutral. Its late withdrawal from hosting COP25 points to the difficulties and complexities of such ambitions: how can you effect change in the middle of civil unrest?
