The Chile’s village of Toconce inaugurated a rural electrification programme

The Chile’s village of Toconce inaugurated a rural electrification programme, promoted by GDN, a joint venture between Enel Green Power Chile (approx. 84.6%) and Enap (approx. 15.4%), and Codelco Distrito Norte, together with the Municipality of Calama, that provides electricity to 90 families in the village through the installation of solar photovoltaic kits in each home and public building.

The community inaugurated the project with its representatives and neighbours, in a special ceremony attended by the president of the Toconce community, Abel Bartolo; the Mayor of the Municipality of Calama, Daniel Augusto Pérez; the Head of Geotérmica del Norte, Guido Cappetti; and Codelco Distrito Norte’s manager of community affairs and sustainability, Claudio Flores.

In this context, Geotérmica del Norte’s Head, Guido Cappetti, emphasised that the company was always concerned about seeking a solution to Toconce's lack of electricity. "We made this commitment in the area of the Cerro Pabellón geothermal project because, for us, electricity is a concrete way to improve the quality of life of people and of families. An initiative as powerful as Cerro Pabellón had to promote a project of this type. What we are experiencing today is of great importance and is an example to follow.”

In turn, Claudio Flores, Codelco Distrito Norte’s manager of community affairs and sustainability noted that "close and collaborative work with the community, companies and the local authority has been a hallmark of our community management and we see this reflected in actions like this one, in which Toconce neighbours fulfil the dream of having energy, which is also clean and sustainable, through the use of solar panels. This is one of the 117 social investment projects we had in 2017 and in that sense we are proud to fulfill the objective of making the mining development of our District viable, together with the improvement of the quality of life of our neighbours".