In 2013, with the promulgation of the law 20,698, the target was increased to 20% by the year 2025, and a new progression for the following years was defined.In 2008, the Chilean Law set the Non Conventional Renewable Energy Target to 10% by 2024.According to Chilean law (N°20,257 of 2008), the Non Conventional Renewable Energy sources are:Hydro-power has always been an important resource in the Chilean electric grid.

And that means the future is electric, renewable and, best of all, cheap.The intersection of innovation and global challenges such as climate change and sustainable development are driving change in the economy. Chile has been taking advantage of the opportunity, with IRENA reporting that solar capacity in the country doubled from 2016 to 2018 from 1.12GW to 2.13GW.Pablo Burgos, chief executive of Solarpack said, “The Granja project will be one of the most efficient and competitive solar PV plants in the world and will generate more than 340 GWh of clean electricity every year, contributing to the decarbonization of the country's energy matrix".

Historically, hydro-power has accounted for around 50% of the total electricity generation of the country.There are 118 hydro-power plants in the entire country totaling almost 6,460 MW of installed capacity, of which 10 plants are dams (the rest are run-of-the-river). And in places like Chile, a lot lower.What’s exciting about renewable energy however is the impact it can have on other sectors. In recent years, Chile has invested so much in its solar power industry that the country is now generating more electricity from the sun than it knows what to do with. This includes the Solar power in Chile has the potential of producing all of the electricity used in The 246MW El Romero solar photovoltaic plant opened in November 2016 at In 2016, SolarPack won an electricity auction (held without disclosing bidders' power source) by bidding $29.1/MWh;The 2016 electricity auction for a combined 12.34 TWh was won partly by wind power. The law 20,257 promulgated in 2008 and the law 20,698 promulgated in 2013 by the Ministry of Energy have been the main framework for the promotion of Non Conventional Renewable Energy in Chile.IRENA, “Renewable Energy Policy Brief: Chile,” 2015. The remaining energy produced will be sold through the spot market.At the same time, the total lifetime costs of new onshore wind and solar PV projects installed in 2020 and beyond are set to cost less than the operating costs of existing coal‑fired plants, with system-wide planning keeping integration costs to a minimum.At the beginning of 2018, IRENA’s analysis of auction and PPA data suggested that the global weighted-average cost of electricity could fall to just under five US cents per kilowatt-hour (USD 0.049/kWh) for onshore wind and five and a half cents per kilowatt-hour (USD 0.055/kWh) for solar PV in 2020.

A year later, the potential value for onshore wind in 2020 has dropped a further 8%, to four and a half cents per kilowatt-hour (USD 0.045/kWh), while that of solar PV drops 13%, to less than five cents for kilowatt-hour (USD 0.048 /kWh).

Significant potential exists in the use of biomass, hydropower, geothermal, solar, wave and wind energy. That is simply no longer true.While renewable energy received subsidies in many markets to ensure a more level playing field, that trend is set to change. This breaks the current record held by Dubai’s Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) which announced a deal earlier this year at $0.0299 per kWh.While there has been increasing awareness of the strides made in cutting the cost of renewable energy technologies (solar for example has fallen 90% in cost over the last ten years), the argument is still often being made that coal is the cheapest form of generation.

The expanded role of the state in energy planning has helped to boost project development, especially in electricity transmission. In particular, Chile has one of the largest solar potentials in the world. A founder of The Net ImperativeThe intersection of innovation and global challenges such as climate change and sustainable development are driving change in the economy. In Chile, Spain’s Solarpack Corp. Tecnologica has installed the first panels at its Granja Sola plant. Off take agreements have been signed covering 2021 to 2040, with 25 regional distribution companies.

The report says that cost decreases will unlock decarbonisation for industry, transport and buildings. New legislation encourages investment in generating capacity across the electricity sector. Most of the time, when referring to Renewable Energy in Chile, it will be the Non Conventional kind. Most of these (65% by September 2015) are classified as non-conventional renewable energy and are considered “mini hydro-power plants”, as they have less than 20 MW of installed capacity.With 15% of the world's volcanoes, Chile has vast geothermal potential, estimated at 16,000 MW.