President Gabriel Boric visits the Cerro Dominador CSP Plant

As part of his visit to the northern macrozone, Gabriel Boric, President of the Republic, was welcomed by the Cerro Group to his first visit to the Cerro Dominador Plant. He was accompanied by Carolina Tohá, Minister of the Interior, Diego Pardow, Minister of Energy, and Professor José Maza.  The President discussed power plants, necessary to achieve a sustainable energy transition that not only encompasses innovation and new technologies, but also female talent and collaboration among the private sector, academics, territories and the Government.

Cerro Dominador is not only the first concentrated solar power plant in Latin America that can produce reliable clean energy 24 hours a day 7 days a week, it is also a place that represents resilience and commitment. It is a place where this project, emblematic for Chile, came to be and where innovation, perseverance, respect for the environment, the territory and the community are fundamental values.

After a short tour of the plant, Fernando Gonzalez, CEO of the Cerro Group, spoke of the importance of taking action today to be able to think effectively in the future. “In a world where the ideals of the fight against climate change often clash with the uncontrollable reality of prices and of the availability of fuels; in a world where at times, the hope of decarbonization and renewable energy clash with the reality of the intermittence and variability of natural resources; and in a world where because we continue to think in the past and not of the future, paradoxically, the more renewable energy we have, the more fossil fuels we end up burning. This is the time to make changes, to think about the renewable revolution 2.0. Finally, we can create, conceive and design an efficient, sound and sustainable electric system for a 21^st century electricity market. A market that will appropriately use the technologies now available to be more efficient.”

President Boric spoke of the Government’s commitment to assume precisely that challenge today. “Our effort today in this respect is to create a clean energy matrix that will help improve the quality of life of our inhabitants, will make Chile a world leader in renewable energy generation, and will open the doors to Chile also becoming a green hydrogen benchmark for the world. We are also moving towards having our homes, schools, hospitals and industries being supplied electricity from clean energy sources. Many are the efforts being made in this direction and we need to work together on this. My desire is that like today, the private sector, municipalities, local representatives, the community, civil society, academics and the Government come together to talk.”