2024-01-29 16:48:13
Couple Elsa Bembaron
Published yesterday at 5:48 p.m., Updated yesterday at 5:48 p.m.
Engie’s 32 wind turbines located in the Atacama Desert, near Calama, can already power the equivalent of 5,300 homes. Elsa Bembaron/ Le Figaro
DECRYPTION – The French energy company is increasing its initiatives to move to “all solar and wind”.
Nestled between the slopes of the Andes mountain range and the Pacific Ocean, which crashes against spectacular rock piles, the small town of Tocopilla, in the north of Chile, with its industrial port and its coal-fired power stations, has nothing like a seaside resort. Engie has a coal-fired power plant there, which is slated for closure. Two production units have already been razed, and the shutdown of two others is underway. “What has changed? Dust no longer covers our homes», retorts with a smile Marisa Pino, one of the representatives of the local community.
The destruction of the plant responds to the political will of the country: to phase out coal in 2040. A date that the government does not rule out moving forward. “We are one of the first emerging countries to embark on this path“, underlines Francisco Munoz, research director of the Generators Association. For its part, Engie did not wait for a possible political development. For the French energy company, which is one of the big four…
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