Solcor, a start-up founded by two young Belgians from Western Flanders, has installed solar panels on Chile’s presidential palace, its chief executive officer and co-founder, Steven van Cauwenberge, announced on Wednesday. Solcor, also co-founded by Alexander Decock, won the Start-up Chile prize, a competition for young entrepreneurs, in 2014.
With its year-round sun, Chile is the perfect place to install solar panels. Because of the risk of earthquakes, nuclear reactors cannot be built there. This is why the Chilean Government decided to focus on renewable energy, which already comprises 19% of the country’s energy mix.
Chile’s authorities aim to have the country produce 90% of its energy from the sun and the wind by 2050.
Solcor, which works mainly with companies in the farming sector and with the State, will now supply 18% of the energy consumed by the president and his services within the presidential palace.
The Palacia de La Moneda will have a new occupant from March onward, when the liberal president-elect Sebastián Piñera, takes over from Michelle Bachelet. Bachelet had succeeded Piñera in 2014, four years after he took over the reins of the presidency from her, at the end of her first term, in 2010.
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The Brussels Times
