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Corral, N., Anrique, N., Fernandes, D., Parrado, C., & Caceres, G. (2012). Power, placement and LEC evaluation to install CSP plants in northern Chile. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev., 16(9), 6678–6685.
Abstract: Chile is expecting a 5.4% growth in energy consumption per year until 2030, requiring new and better solutions for the upward trend of its electricity demand. This state leads to select and study one of the potential alternatives for electricity generation: concentrated solar power (CSP) plants. Such renewable technology found in Chile a very favorable condition. Recent researches indicate Atacama Desert as one of the best regions for solar energy worldwide, having an average radiation higher than in places where CSP plants are currently implemented, e.g. Spain and USA. The aim of this study is to present an analysis of levelized energy cost (LEC) for different power capacities of CSP plants placed in distinct locations in northern Chile. The results showed that CSP plants can be implemented in Atacama Desert with LECs around 19 (sic)US$/kWh when a gas-fired backup and thermal energy storage (TES) systems are fitted. This value increases to approximately 28 (sic)US$/kWh if there is no backup system. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Montane, M., Ruiz-Valero, L., Labra, C., Faxas-Guzman, J. G., & Girard, A. (2021). Comparative energy consumption and photovoltaic economic analysis for residential buildings in Santiago de Chile and Santo Domingo of the Dominican Republic. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev., 146, 111175.
Abstract: This research compares the building energy consumption and the photovoltaic economic analysis between residential buildings in Santiago de Chile and Santo Domingo of the Dominican Republic. The methodology considered thermal simulation, sizing of a solar PV system, an economic analysis and CO2 emissions given the solar resources of both countries. A scenario where the constructive systems are switched between the countries was also analyzed. A comparison of the energy performances of the houses exposed to other climate conditions. Results show that housing in Santiago de Chile required less energy than housing in Santo Domingo due to the fact that the thermal transmittance of the enclosures of the Chilean housing has better thermal behavior, compared to the materials of the Dominican housing. Dominican houses need a higher amount of electricity for air cooling due to the high temperatures in the tropic. Meanwhile, Chilean countries requires a higher amount of gas for heating purposes. The Dominican Republic lacks thermal regulation for construction material, and applying Chilean standards in Dominican houses, helped to lower the yearly electricity demand by 19%. Dominican constructions materials improvement could have an important impact in the country's overall goal to lower CO2 emission and in-house energy savings. The economic analysis showed that the Dominican Republic renewable energies incentives contribute to the development of very attractive PV projects, meanwhile in Chile, the use of net metering instead of net billing could increase by 11 times the net present value of PV projects.
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Nasirov, S., & Agostini, C. A. (2018). Mining experts' perspectives on the determinants of solar technologies adoption in the Chilean mining industry. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev., 95, 194–202.
Abstract: The energy demand in Chile arises mostly from mining, its largest industry that accounts for about 35% of total electricity consumption. Energy generation to satisfy this demand depends completely on imported fossil fuels. As a result, the mining industry faces several energy related challenges. In particular, the cost and environmental impact of fuel sources are threatening the competitiveness of the industry and urge for new developments. In that regard, the importance of using clean and cost-competitive renewable energy sources has increased significantly in Chile and several government policies helped to increase the investment in them. The impact has been particularly large in the development of solar energy in the northern part of the country, where almost all mines are located. In fact, the country has become one of the largest solar markets in Latin America thanks to its abundant solar resources, favorable market conditions, and successful policy reforms. Solar energy then, could play a significant role as an alternative to satisfy the mining industry's energy demand offering a broad range of technological solutions. This study examines the key issues – barriers and drivers-influencing the adoption of solar technologies in the Chilean mining industry from the perspective of mining actors. As a result of the analysis the paper also provides a scope for appropriate policy interventions.
Keywords: Mining industry; Energy challenges; Solar energy; Chile
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Nasirov, S., Carredano, N., Agostini, C. A., & Silva, C. (2021). Public perception and adoption of Solar Water Heating systems in Chile: The role of supply side income tax credits. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev., 135, 110389.
Abstract: During the last decade, the Chilean government introduced a corporate income tax credit for construction companies installing Solar Water Heating (SWH) systems in new housing developments. The credit aims to provide hot-water solutions to the residential sector with a cheaper and more environmentally-friendly than fossil fuels. The tax benefits were initially granted from 2010 to 2013, during which time a total of 40,705 SWHs were installed. The credits were renewed for the 2016-2020 period, and SWH installations surpassed 100,000. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the public perception regarding the use of SWH systems and the specific role of the tax credit program in the diffusion of SWHs during the initial period. Moreover, the analysis discusses the incentive mechanism applied in Chile and highlights several of the challenges regarding its implementation. Data was gathered using a face-to-face survey of households in three regions of Chile: Metropolitan Santiago, Valparaiso and Coquimbo, where most of the SWH were installed. The results showed that an average of 76% of the beneficiaries were highly satisfied with the SWH installations and operation, nearly 99% of respondents believed that this type of energy should be expanded to more households in Chile, and most agreed that the Government should play a significant role in such expansion.
Keywords: SWHs; Chile; Corporate income tax credit; The public perception
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Ordonez, J., Gago, E. J., & Girard, A. (2016). Processes and technologies for the recycling and recovery of spent lithium-ion batteries. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev., 60, 195–205.
Abstract: LiBs pose a very specific threat, given that they contain a high percentage of dangerous heavy metals. From the 4000 t of used lithium-ion batteries collected in 2005, 1100 t of heavy metals and more than 200 t of toxic electrolytes were generated. This is why a lot of attention has been paid to the development of the technology necessary to recover and recycle LiBs in order not only to protect the environment but also to conserve resources. The recovery of major spent cell components is beneficial both in terms of environmental protection and also for the provision of raw materials. The authors of this article carried out a state of the art on the technologies used in the recycling and regeneration of industrial lithium-ion batteries. The main objective of such technologies is to enable the recycling of valuable elements present in the batteries, such as cobalt, nickel and copper, in a way which is both profitable and environmentally friendly. All the technologies used in the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries are constantly changing makes subsequent changes to the research into recycling and recovery technologies necessary. This does not mean merely finding ways to recover the precious metals, but also to recover other materials which may harm the environment, in order to dispose of them appropriately. The discussion of this research clearly reflects that: There are very few studies on the recovery of metals such as graphite, the electrolyte in spent LIBs, and it is our belief that more research is needed in this area. The research into the application of microorganisms in the used lithium batteries is few and far between. It is important to find ways to recover the precious metals and to recover other materials which may harm the environment, in order to dispose of them appropriately. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Spent lithium-ion batteries; Recycling; Recovery
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Ramirez-Sagner, G., & Munoz, F. D. (2019). The effect of head-sensitive hydropower approximations on investments and operations in planning models for policy analysis. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev., 105, 38–47.
Abstract: Planning for new generation infrastructure in hydrothermal power systems requires consideration of a series of nonlinearities that are often ignored in planning models for policy analysis. In this article, three different capacity- planning models are used, one nonlinear and two linear ones, with different degrees of complexity, to quantify the impact of simplifying the head dependency of hydropower generation on investments in both conventional and renewable generators and system operations. It was found that simplified investment models can bias the optimal generation portfolios by, for example, understating the need for coal and combined-cycle gas units and overstating investments in wind capacity with respect to a more accurate nonlinear formulation, which could affect policy recommendations. It was also found that the economic cost of employing a simplified model can be below 10% of total system cost for most of the scenarios and system configurations analyzed, but as high as nearly 70% of total system cost for specific applications. Although these results are not general, they suggest that for certain system configurations both linear models can provide reasonable approximations to more complex nonlinear formulations. Uncertain water inflows were also considered using stochastic variants of all three planning models. Interestingly, if due to time or computational limitations only one of these two features could be accounted for, these results indicate that explicit modeling of the nonlinear-head effect in a deterministic model could yield better results (up to 0.6% of economic regret) than a stochastic linear model (up to 9.6% of economic regret) that considers the uncertainty of water inflows.
Keywords: Generation planning; Hydropower; Policy analysis; Simplifications; Uncertainty
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Zhang, H. L., Baeyens, J., Degreve, J., & Caceres, G. (2013). Concentrated solar power plants: Review and design methodology. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev., 22, 466–481.
Abstract: Concentrated solar power plants (CSPs) are gaining increasing interest, mostly as parabolic trough collectors (PTC) or solar tower collectors (STC). Notwithstanding CSP benefits, the daily and monthly variation of the solar irradiation flux is a main drawback. Despite the approximate match between hours of the day where solar radiation and energy demand peak, CSPs experience short term variations on cloudy days and cannot provide energy during night hours unless incorporating thermal energy storage (TES) and/or backup systems (BS) to operate continuously. To determine the optimum design and operation of the CSP throughout the year, whilst defining the required TES and/or BS, an accurate estimation of the daily solar irradiation is needed. Local solar irradiation data are mostly only available as monthly averages, and a predictive conversion into hourly data and direct irradiation is needed to provide a more accurate input into the CSP design. The paper (i) briefly reviews CSP technologies and STC advantages; (ii) presents a methodology to predict hourly beam (direct) irradiation from available monthly averages, based upon combined previous literature findings and available meteorological data; (iii) illustrates predictions for different selected STC locations; and finally (iv) describes the use of the predictions in simulating the required plant configuration of an optimum STC. The methodology and results demonstrate the potential of CSPs in general, whilst also defining the design background of STC plants. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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