15 December 2011: The Inter-American Development (IDB) has approved a $32 million loan and technical assistance package for Chile’s largest locally-owned table fruit producer, Subsole, to power its irrigation pumps with solar technology, investigate solar cooling technology, conduct energy audits and generally improve its energy and water-use efficiency while reducing its carbon footprint.

The Bank and Subsole are emphasizing that a key project funded by the loan will be the building of a 300 kilowatts-peak (kWp) solar photovoltaic plant on its farms in the Copiapó valley, a region 800 kilometers north of Santiago that is surrounded by the Atacama desert. The solar power plant, the first among Chilean fruit producers, will power pumps that bring water up from aquifers. The IDB hopes that other fruit producers will follow Subsole’s example.

The loan and technical assistance package will also enable: energy audits at six irrigation sites and three packaging and cold storage facilities; a pre-feasibility study on solar cooling technology; improved irrigation and water storage methods; construction of energy-efficient storage and packaging facilities with state-of-the-art technology, such as energy and water management systems and frequency converters for water pumps.

Paola Bazan, project team leader for the IDB’s Structured and Corporate Finance Department, reported that the package will not only increase Subsole’s sustainability, but also increase exports and directly and indirectly generate 10,000 new jobs along the entire supply chain. [IDB Press Release]