Chile plans to close half of its coal-fired power plants by 2025, 15 years ahead of a deadline to eliminate the fossil fuel from its power mix, Energy Minister Juan Carlo Jobet said April 28.
“We are continuing to consolidate the age of clean energy and leaving behind the coal age,” the minister said.
Under an initial agreement signed by the government and power companies in June 2019, eight plants with 1,000 MW of installed capacity were due to close by 2024. Six were taken offline by the end of last year.
Since then, AES Gener, Enel and Engie have all brought forward commitments to close plants by that date, lifting the installed capacity to close by 2025 to almost 2,900 MW.
The new target follows an announcement April 28 by French energy giant Engie to refit its three newest coal-fired plants in the country by the middle of the decade.