Exploration for High-Temperature Geothermal Resources in the Andean Countries of South America

The Andean countries of South America have very significant unexploited geothermal resources. During the decade of the 1960, geothermal exploration started in Colombia, Argentina and Chile with the aim to use this clean source of energy for electricity generation. Later on, there was some interest in developing geothermal in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. However, at present it has not been possible to develop this energy for electricity generation. High-temperature geothermal resources in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile are associated with Quaternary volcanic activity. On the other hand, low to medium temperature resources are found in eastern South America. All these countries have carried out geothermal exploration initiated by the respective governments, which have been supported by foreign institutions, such as UNDP, OLADE and others. At present, interest in developing high-temperature geothermal resources for electricity purposes has been renewed in some of these Andean countries, with most of the exploration conducted by private geothermal developers . Furthermore, a risk mitigation fund is being prepared for geothermal development in those countries; the fund will be established by the Latin American Development Bank (CAF) and the German Development Bank (KfW).