9 November 2019 | New Scientist | 29Powering on
Photographer Jamey Stillings
jameystillings.com
ALTHOUGH protests in Chile have
led the nation to withdraw from
hosting the 2019 United Nations
Climate Change Conference
(COP25), its ambitious plans
for a renewable energy future
continue. This dramatic image of
a solar facility, contrasting starkly
with the ancient sand of the
Atacama desert, shows how those
intentions are becoming reality.
These panels are in the
Solar Jama plant, along the coast
from Chile’s capital, Santiago.
It is located thousands of metres
above sea level, and the arid
desert air contains very little
water vapour, allowing more
sunlight to reach the solar cells.
The country’s green energy
credentials were dealt a blow
last week when it pulled out as
host of COP25. The move followed
anti-government protests about
inequality and rising prices.
Chile had seemed like a perfect
home for the conference in the
year climate change protests
went mainstream: in the past
10 years, the country has suffered
mega-droughts and its worst
ever wildfires.
Chile aims to get 20 per cent
of its power from renewables by
2025, rising to 70 per cent by 2050,
the year by which it has pledged
to become carbon neutral. Its late
withdrawal from hosting COP25
points to the difficulties and
complexities of such ambitions:
how can you effect change in
the middle of civil unrest? ❚
Jason Arunn Murugesu