Ecobreves – CHILE: Ecologists Celebrate Center for Renewable Energies

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SANTIAGO, Aug 24 2009 (IPS) - The Chilean government of Michelle Bachelet last week inaugurated the Center for Renewable Energies (CER), specializing in research, development and promotion of unconventional sources, like solar, wind, geothermal and wave motion. CER will study the evolution of these sources around the world, promote public-private partnership for innovation, supply information and guidance to governmental, academic and business entities, generate an inventory of natural resources and push for a certification system.

The new center will “institutionalize a strategic option for the future electrical development of Chile,” Sara Larraín, director of the non- governmental Sustainable Chile Program, told Tierramérica.

Over the last four years of the Bachelet administration, 24 percent of new electricity generation has been developed using alternative sources, some 600 megawatts, which reflect exponential growth, she said.