'Agricultural Solar Innovation': Project will promote the use of solar energy and technological automation for agricultural challenges in the region

This is an automated translation of the original release published in Spanish.

PRESS RELEASE from Mainstream Renewable Power and Universidad de Atacama.

In the middle of the Atacama desert, in the town of Piedra Colgada in the district of Copiapó and about 15 kilometers from the Salesianos School, the institution is building the first “Technical Professional Learning, Training and Experimentation Center.” This initiative was created in 2022, so that electrical and electronics students could have a space outside the establishment's premises to reinforce and strengthen their training.

One of the projects included in the center is the construction of a greenhouse for experimental agricultural use, measuring about 50 square meters, and which will operate through the use of solar energy. The particularity of this greenhouse is that it can be controlled directly from the school thanks to home automation systems that will be designed and made by the 3rd and 4th year students themselves. This will allow them to learn and control the automation of sowing and cultivation processes of species with less possibility of growth in the Atacama region.

“A couple of years ago we started with a projection of the school's retreat house to begin to transform it into an educational center that favors the development of other capacities, more on the ground and in practice,” says the rector of the Salesianos School of Copiapó, Michael Orellana.

The teacher also thanked the alliance formed with Mainstream Renewable Power and the Universidad de Atacama, which allowed the implementation of the Agricultural Solar Innovation Program to begin. “This is a challenge and a tremendous opportunity for us as a training center for professional technicians, because the alliance with the company allows us to be up to date on the requirements and needs that the industry demands today, while at the same time the university's specialists give us all the technical knowledge. Then, all the work complements each other and creates a true alliance,” he said.

Thus, Universidad de Atacama, through the Department of Energy and New Technologies, will provide specialized advice to the teaching staff of the Salesianos School, and will supply the materials and equipment necessary to manufacture the greenhouse systems. The acquisition of the necessary tools that will allow the plantations to be automated and remotely managed will be thanks to the resources provided by Mainstream Renewable Power.

“The integration that will take place will be interactive, multidisciplinary and will allow for increasing the knowledge that exists in the region from different angles: the innovative perspective of young people, the knowledge of teachers and the industry experience. "That these elements can find a common space will allow us to open spaces that go even beyond the mere transfer of knowledge," said the director of the Department of Energy and New Technologies of Universidad de Atacama, Carmen Aguirre.

For his part, the deputy manager of Public Affairs and Communities in the North Zone of Mainstream, Sebastián Espinoza, appreciated that initiatives are generated that promote the sector and future generations that will work in the energy industry. “It is essential that more initiatives like these, which instill, promote and show that sustainability can be mixed with innovation, continue to be promoted in the region in order to realize that a factor of change can be generated from your profession,” he said.