Hyvity sets up in Chile to develop virtuous and sustainable hydroelectricity
Considered a model of stability in Latin America, Chile today has a fairly balanced energy mix of fossil fuels and renewable energies. Hydroelectricity, which accounted for 23% of this energy mix in 2020, is strongly favored by the country’s geography, with the Andes Mountains stretching along its entire length. Despite a spectacular breakthrough in solar and wind power in recent years, renewable energies are struggling to exceed 50% of overall energy production, even though this has doubled in 20 years.
Driven by a strong political will, Chile has set itself ambitious targets for moving away from coal and, more generally, for completely decarbonizing its electricity mix by 2050. This ambition is shared by Hyvity, which aims to develop and optimize, alongside local players, a portfolio of responsible, sustainable hydroelectric schemes in the southern half of the country. We have already identified several power plant portfolios for acquisition, which are assets of excellent technical quality and benefiting from a solid track record, as well as around ten projects to be developed over the next 3 to 5 years, for a total installed capacity of around 150 MW (600 GWh).
In Chile, Hyvity is in the process of setting up a regional platform to support the deployment of our activities in Latin America. Our aim is to set up a multi-site operational management system that will enable us to centralize all support functions relating to the various projects we will be deploying in the region. To this end, Hyvity has begun recruiting a local team and arranging financing with Chilean and international banks and partners.
In addition, we are developing an E&S Management System aimed at carrying out environmental and social impact studies to the highest international standards, with the aim of exploring and replicating concrete solutions for the positive externalities of our hydroelectric developments.