Strengthening the Transition: Of the utmost urgency

Despite significant progress in the adoption of energy efficiency policies and clean electricity generation, the World Economic Forum in its latest report (June 2024) highlights with concern how the transition has slowed down due to global uncertainties and the rising cost of electricity.

It is remarkable that, in a list of 120 countries evaluated, Chile is ranked as N°20 in leadership according to the Energy Transition Index (ETI), in the region only after Brazil, which is ranked at number 12.

Clearly, we should be proud of the development of the energy industry in the last decade, which puts us in a leading position in terms of the incorporation of NCRE in the electricity generation matrix.

This leadership brings its benefits, but also its responsibilities. In the first place, it places us at the center of development and technology transfer in energy transition at the regional level. However, at the same time, it obliges us to look seriously and in advance at the effects of the incorporation of NCRE, particularly their intermittency and their effect on electricity costs.

The promise of incorporating clean energy must be accompanied by competitive tariffs for customers, and incentives for generators to adopt new technologies in a virtuous way, otherwise the momentum is lost.

For now, rather partial solutions have been adopted to solve specific problems, which has ultimately created a huge debt, and the slow development of the energy storage industry and new transmission lines. These challenges and the strengthening of the technical institutional framework are essential to move forward.

We must accelerate the pace and generate the necessary consensus, knowing that we may be the first in the region to implement these policies. We must not let it happen that, by delaying, the conviction of cleaning up the energy matrix is slowed down by the dissatisfaction of customers who see their lives and activities negatively affected.

Alvaro Videla

Director UC Energy Center

Pontifical Catholic University of Chile