to supply these industries. To overcome this lack of energy resources, the country is forced to depend on its neighbours.
Thermal power stations are mainly powered by Argentine gas which crosses the country in huge pypelines. The Chilean energy dependence necessary to ensure the functioning of the mining desert, its economy, leads to its isolation.
Over the past fifteen, years the country has begun its energy transition towards cleaner production. New equipment has been installed in the territory to exploit its most abundant resource, which has been unreachable until now. The technological advances of these new power plants are reversing the country's isolation from energy and tending towards its autonomy. After copper and lithium, solar energy has become the vernacular resource of the province of Antofgasta, one of the sunniest regions on the world.
30 solar farms have been built since 2016 and the last thermal power plants are shutting down. Today, more and more, Chilean energy is produced locally, to feed its industries. So much so that it's being offered to the locals.
Aware of this energy wealth, Chilean homes are individually equipped with new devices to ensure their domestic
consumption. These state-of-the-art technological equipment contrasts with traditional construction methods but both belong to the same vernacular heritage.
The device we offer is in line with this.
In these weather conditions, solar power plants allow extraordinary electricity production. The energy consumption of the country is lower than its production. Energy losses exist. Unexploited, we imagine that their storage would allow the total autonomy of the system, a night consumption of solar energy.
To store electricity it must be transformed into another form of energy. We choose the potential energy of gravity which ensures a stable, long-lasting storage, depending on a mass that we choose locally: mining gravel.
The electric current produced, not consumed, is used to raise a mass which, on descending, will produce 80% of the energy initially injected.
This mass of earth takes the form of a roof whose posts are hydraulic jacks that allow it to be raised.
This is the tool we offer. A technical, structural element that captures the overproduction of energy to convert it into storable mechanical energy and allows its free consumption.
Roof dimensions depend on the average consumption of one night per household. The cumulative storage of several households creates the roof. The consumption of 100 households corresponds to 3000m2 of excavated land at 9m high. We choose these values to literally dimension a first device.
Installed to serve dwellings near mining sites, its right-of- way is modulated according to its context.
The device is designed to be suitable for night-time domestic consumption. Surplus stored energy is "returned" to the inhabitants by the programmes that the roof can accommodate.
The rhythm of use of the device does not correspond to an hourly cycle but is variable according to domestic consumption. The greater the savings, the taller the roof can accommodate energy-intensive programmes. Conversely, if the savings are lower.
Discharged of all energy, the roof disappears into the ground. The mound of dirt, an artificial landscape, becomes a mineral garden.
It is also in this low configuration that the roof can be loaded with mining rubble.
The textile canvases partition the space. Its openings change according to the height of the roof, giving it more or less wide accesses depending on the amount of energy available.
The public space created and the programmes it hosts depend directly on the energy savings of the inhabitants. The device channels leaks from an enclosed system into a new space. Here, access to the resource is public. Distributed both symbolically and practically.