How can Chile make better use of its abundant solar energy resources? The country has one of the highest rates of solar irradiance per square meter in the world, which has led to a growing number of projects to generate electricity using photovoltaic panels, in both large-scale installations and medium-sized systems. Distributed generation—smaller, locally connected systems or those for self-consumption—has not grown at the same pace, partly due to regulatory issues and challenges related to the traceability of the energy generated.

This challenge has been viewed as an opportunity by the Adolfo Ibáñez University Center for Energy Transition (Centra) and the Chilean Solar Energy Association (Acesol), which have joined forces to develop an applied research project focused on the integration of energy resources. 

The project aims to develop a platform and computational tools to simulate the behavior of the power grid and facilitate the efficient placement of resources such as batteries, solar panels, and electric vehicle charging stations, for example.

Through this initiative, its proponents aim to influence public policy and unlock investments in distributed generation by bringing about regulatory changes to promote it.

Trends in Distributed Generation in Chile (Self-Consumption, in kWp)

Source: CNE, Flux Solar