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"In Chile, solar energy project developer Solarpack Corporación Tecnológica and state-owned Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile (Codelco), the world's leading copper producer, say they will build the country's first utility-scale solar power plant in northern Chile, an area with high potential for solar energy generation."

"The Chilean government has set its sights on significantly increasing its geothermal energy capacity. The Ministry of Energy recently announced a new contract for the development of 20 areas by 2012. 70 bids from 13 domestic and foreign firms were submitted for the rights to exploit the newly released regions of Rarapacos and Los Ricos. Earlier in the year, Energy Minister Ricardo Raineri announced more than 170 concessions for geothermal energy by 2012. He further specified that these concessions would be supported by US$200 million in funding from the government. The country is striving to increase its geothermal capacity to 1,000 megawatts in order to meet an ever-growing energy demand in a sustainable manner"

Capturing energy from the earth's heat is pretty easy pickin's for geologically-active areas of the world like Iceland, Indonesia, and Chile. In some locations, hot fluids are so near the earth's surface that heat from naturally-occurring hot fluids can be directly circulated through buildings for heating. Iceland, in particular, takes advantage of this low-hanging energy fruit. However, in most areas of the world where geothermal energy is captured, the heat is used to generate electricity. Conventional Geothermal Energy Unlike some of the more common alternative energies - hydro, solar, and wind - geothermal is impervious to weather conditions. This independence means it provides excellent base load electricity. Currently all commercial geothermal electricity is generated by so-called conventional systems, whereby naturally- occurring hot water or steam is accessed at comparatively shallow depths in areas of very high geothermal gradient. Wells are commonly drilled to depths on the order of 2 km. The water or steam they produce is used to spin turbines that in turn generate electricity.