チリに南米初の太陽熱発電所

【サンティアゴＡＦＰ＝時事】チリのアタカマ砂漠で８日、南米初の太陽熱発電所の開業式が行われた。２０５０年までに温室効果ガスの排出量を実質ゼロにする「カーボンニュートラル」の実現に弾みをつけると期待される。（写真はチリ・アントファガスタに建設された南米初の太陽熱発電所。セロ・ドミナドール提供）
　敷地面積７００ヘクタールを超える複合施設「セロ・ドミナドール」に造られたタワーの高さは２５０メートルで、頂上に光を集めるレシーバーが置かれている。周りには１万６００枚の鏡が設置されている。
　レシーバー内の溶融塩が熱を吸収し、その熱で蒸気タービンを回転させ、最大１１０メガワットの電力を生み出す。
　隣接する太陽光発電所と合わせ、セロ・ドミナドールでは、２１０メガワットの再生可能エネルギーを生成できる。
　溶融塩は最大１７．５時間にわたりエネルギーを蓄えることができ、直射日光が当たらなくても１日２４時間稼働できることがこの太陽熱発電所の特徴。
　開所式に出席したチリのセバスティアン・ピニェラ大統領は、「年間６０万トン以上の二酸化炭素（ＣＯ２）排出量を削減できる。これは自動車３０万台の１年間の排出量に相当する」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/06/10-11:46）

Chile on Tuesday inaugurated Latin America's first-ever thermosolar energy plant, a vast complex dubbed Cerro Dominador in the Atacama desert that gives a boost to the country's quest for carbon-neutrality by 2050.
In an area exceeding 700 hectares, 10,600 mirrors surround a 250-meter-high tower topped with a receiver onto which the Sun's rays are reflected.
Molten salts in the receiver absorb the heat and are then used to generate electricity -- up to 110 megawatts -- by means of a steam turbine.
Combined with an adjacent photovoltaic plant, the Cerro Dominador complex is capable of producing 210 megawatts of renewable energy.
A feature of the project is that the salts can store energy for up to 17.5 hours, allowing the system to continue operating without direct sunlight, and for 24 hours per day, its operators say.
It will allow us to save more than 600,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year. That is equivalent to what 300,000 cars emit in a year, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said at the inauguration event.
Carbon dioxide is the most abundant of human-created greenhouse gases blamed for climate change and planet warming.
It is generated by burning carbon-based fossil fuels used in transportation and power generation, construction, deforestation, agriculture and other practices, and persists in the atmosphere and oceans for thousands of years after it is emitted.
In line with the 2015 Paris climate agreement, which seeks to hold global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, Chile pledged to make its economy carbon neutral by 2050, meaning it emits no more than it can offset through other means.
Construction of the Cerro Dominador project started in 2014 in the middle of the Atacama desert, some 3,000 meters above sea level in Chile's warm, dry and sunny north.
Pinera said Chile would inaugurate more clean energy projects in 2021 than in all its previous history to meet the urgent challenge of climate change.
This will include electrifying public transport, replacing carbon-based energy with green alternatives and expanding forests which absorb CO2.