ASTANA – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile recently confirmed that the Pacific Alliance will participate in EXPO 2017. Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico will open a joint pavilion, bringing the tally of participating countries to 111.
The theme of the expo is “Future Energy” and the Pacific Alliance is exploring the possibility of widespread renewable energy usage. Chile frequently incorporates solar into its energy use and the country’s Catama Solar plant generates 2.62 GW (gigawatt) of energy per a year.
More than $5 billion is expected to be invested in Mexico in new wind farms and a combined-cycle plant. The facilities are expected to increase installed solar capacity in Mexico from 67 MW to 1,300 MW by the end of 2018, making Mexico the strongest market in Latin America.
In Peru, 54 percent of electricity comes from renewable energy sources (RES), specifically from hydroelectric power, with plans to increase that to 60 percent.
Colombia has launched the El Quimbo hydroelectric power station with a capacity of 400 MW. The country has also become known for its first solar vehicle that was created by a group of Colombian students and professors of EAFIT University in Medellin.
EXPO 2017 Secretariat and the Kazakh embassy in Brazil have participated in joint activities of the alliance at Chile’s invitation. On Oct.17,the EXPO 2017 commissioner held a presentation in Santiago. The sides noted the relevance of the expo’s future energy theme and discussed the progress of construction projects as well as opportunities for the participation of countries.
EXPO 2017 will be June 10 to Sept. 10, 2017 in Astana. More than 2 million visitors totaling 5 million visits are expected. Expo organisers have been developing more than 3,000 cultural and entertainment events.
