Photo by Shawn Harquail

On 4 – 5 December 2018, United for Efficiency (U4E) celebrated a great success with a closing event for its three-year LED lighting project in Chile, Smart Energy Fest. Around 160 people attended including high-level speakers such as Chile’s Ministers of Environment and Energy, U4E partners, and international and national energy-efficiency experts. Chile is currently running two strategic full market-transformation programmes with U4E support—helping the economy see growth rates of more than 5 percent in GDP and curbing electricity demand. Energy efficiency, the “first fuel,” benefits all Chilean consumers, resulting in cumulative savings from 2020 to 2030 of around $ 4.5 billion from new LED lighting alone and driving economic development.

Participants discussed how effective strategic energy-efficiency initiatives can be in reaching climate-protection goals and Chile’s national energy commitments, which include an overall reduction in energy consumption of 20 percent by 2020. One quarter of these commitments can be achieved through the U4E project goals alone. In addition, the business opportunity offered by energy efficiency was another relevant topic addressed at this event. Pablo Moreno, Chairman of the Trust for the Saving of Energy in Mexico (FIDE) and U4E partner, described Mexico’s experience through an innovative and successful financing model of public-private energy-efficiency projects for large, small and medium-sized enterprises, “Mexico established an Energy Transition Fund, which has $150 million per year, with which the government covers part of the risk to promote solutions and projects. This is done with the banks, and through this union we have achieved a transformational and cultural change at the market level,” he explained.

Chile is one of four countries in the region currently receiving U4E support to make energy-efficient market transformation a reality, providing sustained economic benefits to all consumers, improving energy security and the environment at the same time. be sure to check out the video!