A brand new regulation that eases restrictions on shallow geothermal use in Chile has been printed within the Official Gazette and formally comes into pressure.
The Authorities of Chile has formally printed Legislation No. 21,711, which improves Legislation No. 19,657 on Geothermal Vitality Concessions, within the Official Gazette. The regulation seeks to facilitate the event of shallow geothermal vitality makes use of by excluding them from the earlier concession regime. With this publication, a lot of the provisions of the regulation have entered into pressure.
The total textual content of the regulation (in Spanish) will be accessed through this hyperlink.
The proposed regulation was accepted by each the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies of the Republic of Chile earlier this yr. The brand new regulation primarily makes the event of shallow geothermal initiatives – outlined by the regulation as being lower than 400 meters depth and at temperatures under 90 °C – by eradicating the requirement for a geothermal concession for such initiatives to function.
The regulation additionally creates a Nationwide Registry for Shallow Makes use of of Geothermal Vitality. to be managed by the Ministry of Vitality, the place new and present shallow geothermal operations will probably be compulsorily registered.
Apart from the provisions on shallow geothermal vitality, the brand new regulation additional modifies the Geothermal Legislation with the next provisions:
- Locations the authority on supervision, rules, and technical requirements of the Geothermal Legislation into the Superintendence of Electrical energy and Fuels, thus consolidating authority right into a singular physique.
- Transfers the operate of sustaining the registry of geothermal concessions to the Ministry of Vitality.
- Restricts groundwater use rights granted by the Geothermal Legislation to geothermal concessionaires to water vital just for exploration and exploitation work.
- Mandates the Ministry of Vitality to situation rules establishing basic security requirements for the utilization of geothermal vitality, together with measures to stop and management dangers to life, well being, and security of individuals, safeguarding the sustainability of the geothermal assets, and defending services and infrastructure.
Laws on shallow geothermal vitality use and security should be issued inside 18 months of publication of the regulation. These rules shall then come into pressure upon publication on the Official Gazette.
A number of shallow geothermal initiatives are at the moment beneath improvement beneath Chile, a lot of which are beneath the management of  Middle of Excellence in Geothermal Vitality of the Andes (CEGA).
Supply: Abogados.com.ar and Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile
