In the last decade, the importance of exploiting Chile’s Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) has increased significantly, as fossil fuel prices have risen and concerns regarding climate change issues grown, posing an important threat to its economy. However, to date, the advancement of Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) in the country has been very limited due to various barriers. For this reason, identifying and mitigating the main barriers that hamper the advancement of RETs is necessary to allow the successful deployment of these technologies. Based on data collected from a questionnaire survey and interviews conducted among the major renewable project developers, the authors identify and rank the major barriers to the adoption of renewable energy technologies in Chile. Our findings show that the most significant barriers include “grid connection constraints and lack of grid capacity”, “longer processing times for a large number of permits”, “land and/or water lease securement” and “limited access to financing”. Furthermore, we discuss the most critical barriers in detail together with policy recommendations to overcome them.

Resumen | El desarrollo económico de Chile en las últimas décadas ha impactado fuertemente el crecimiento de las ciudades y la forma en que las desigualdades sociales se reflejan espacialmente en ellas. Medir con precisión la segregación urbana es, así, relevante, pues además permite diseñar políticas públicas que reduzcan sus efectos negativos. Sin embargo, mediciones previas en Chile tienen limitaciones metodológicas que restringen su validez y comparabilidad. En el presente estudio se utiliza una nueva metodología que combina datos de encuestas con información censal, a fin estimar ingresos de hogares y, con ello, indicadores precisos y estadísticamente robustos de segregación residencial. Adicionalmente, se estima un indicador de segregación que captura de mejor forma el hecho de que los ingresos son una variable continua. Los resultados muestran que la segregación de los más pobres es mayor que la de los más ricos, que aumentó entre 1992 y 2002, y que existe, además, una heterogeneidad importante en la contribución de cada comuna a

A number of successive energy crises over the last decade due to the lack of a balanced investment planning in the energy sector in Chile has led to a strong dependence on external sources and also doubled energy prices in the country, thus posing a significant challenge to the local economy. With the purpose of reaching long-term goals while simultaneously addressing short-term urgencies, Chile seeks to build a consistent and integrated energy policy in order to attract investment in the sector. Despite an overall attractive investment climate and encouraging market conditions in the country, the energy sector has been adversely affected, in particular, by the communities’ opposition to mega-projects based on their expected environmental and social impacts. The study highlights recent experiences of energy generation mega-projects in terms of addressing aspects of sustainability. Based on these experiences, it discusses underdeveloped role of environmental evaluations and the main regulatory challenges ahead, recommending then public policies to effectively address these challenges.

Chile has become one of the first few countries where renewable sources compete directly with conventional generation in price-based auctions. Moreover, the results of energy auctions during the last few years show a remarkable transition from conventional fossil fuels to renewable energies. In fact, the energy auction in 2017, to provide energy to customers from distribution companies, achieved a massive expansion in renewable technology at one of the lowest prices in the world. These positive results prompted the question if such results were permanent or temporal due to factors with limited effects. In this regard, this paper studies the key factors that drove the significant rise of renewable technologies in Chilean energy auctions, obtaining valuable lessons for regulators, not only in Chile, but also in the region and the world. For this purpose, we considered a well-proven method based on a hybrid multicriteria decision-making model to examine and prioritize the main drivers of the expansion of renewables in auctions. The results showed that some specific characteristics of the auction design, particularly the hourly supply blocks, the lead time for project construction, and contract duration, were the most significant drivers for the expansion of renewables in energy auctions. Moreover, the results showed that, provided that the auction design accommodates for such drivers, solar energy ends up as the most attractive technology in the Chilean auctions. The research also shows the main findings are robust by the application of a probabilistic sensitivity analysis.