Weekly Report - 19 June 2008 (ISSN 1741-7422)

CHILE | Bachelet on energy mission. President Michelle Bachelet carried out a tour to Canada and the west coast of the US last week to try and drum up investment for alternative energy production. Chile aims to generate 15% of its energy needs from renewable sources and reduce its dependency on gas imports from Argentina and ever-more-expensive oil. Bachelet, who recently advocated harnessing Chile's geographical assets, such as geothermal energy from the volcanic spine in the south and solar energy from the sun-drenched Atacama desert in the north, visited a 64MW thermoelectric solar power plant in the Nevada desert which covers 120 hectares.