A solar thermal plant believed to be the first in South America has now officially gone online.

Spanish firm Abengoa designed and built the 10MW plant for Minera El Tesoro to supply clean thermal energy. Located in the Antofagasta region in Chile, the plant consists of 1,280 solar thermal collector modules (pictured) and has been developed specifically for industrial thermal processes.

The plant is expected to provide heat 24 hours a day using thermal energy storage, which is ideal for the mining sector and other industries with similar energy needs. It is also expected to replace more than 55% of the diesel fuel currently used in the heating process for the copper extraction process in mining production and cut carbon emissions by around 10,000 tons a year.

Abengoa currently has 743 MWe of plants in operation and 910 under construction around the world.