Senator Horvath mantains that Chile's extensive shoreline holds potential for the development of wave energy.
Lauren Andersen, The Santiago Times

National Renovation Party (RN) Senator Antonio Horvath on Monday called on President Michelle Bachelet to send a delegation to an upcoming renewable energy conference in Scotland in order to “guarantee  … all alternative energies have the same opportunity to be known” in Chile.

“Chile is a country with some of the greatest potential in the world to obtain clean energy through tide, channel, and wave motion,” Horvath said in a Senate press release.

Chile has set itself the goal of making 10 percent of its energy carbon-free and renewable by 2024, and with that mind, Horvath pointed out the need to “guarantee that, in line with the diversity of our country, all alternative energies have the same opportunity to participate in energy production.

“To that end, the Budget Law established a fund (for promoting such alternatives) and we want to assure that the Executive will also do everything it needs to in order to have a working scheme that small- and medium-sized businesses can be involved in.”

The conference, which will be held on May 21 and 22, will bring together a number of important Scottish and British government officials, as well as others from countries as far away as Japan, and 361 companies from 12 nations invested in developing renewable and alternative energy sources.

The conference gathers some of the most innovative companies from Britain, northern Europe, and North America working in the field of on- and offshore wind generation, carbon offsetting, carbon reduction, and wave and tidal energy.

Horvath has been a champion of renewable energies for some time. He represents the Aysén region, which is at the heart of Chile’s current environmental deliberations. He has spoken out against HidroAysén, a US$4 billion project to build dams on the two largest rivers in the area, the Baker and the Pascua. The two companies behind it, Colbún of Chile and Endesa of Spain, have lobbied strenuously to push the proposal through, arguing that the dams´ 2,400 megawatts of energy generation would meet 30 percent of Chile’s current energy needs (ST, Mar. 20, 2007 ).

Horvath is one of many who argue that the dams would devastate the unspoiled wilderness around the rivers. The dams would flood 58 square miles of forest, and a 1,240 km transmission line running north to Santiago would cut through miles of wilderness. Horvath has also advocated against turning to nuclear energy, instead promoting smaller and less destructive hydroelectric projects as well as wave and tidal energy solutions as Chile’s best alternatives (ST, Mar. 7, 2007 ; Mar. 20, 2007 ).

Source: Valparaiso Times

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