Evolution of electrical power provisioning for the ESO installations in Chile: a path for an astronomy with a lower CO2 footprint

G. Filippi; P. Scibior; P. van der Heyden; R. Arsenault; R. Tamai

doi:10.1117/12.2629056

29 August 2022 Evolution of electrical power provisioning for the ESO installations in Chile: a path for an astronomy with a lower CO₂ footprint

G. Filippi, P. Scibior, P. van der Heyden, R. Arsenault, R. Tamai

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12182, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes IX; 121823Z (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629056
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2022, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Abstract

Astronomy not only needs the highest sky quality, but also installations that are big consumers of electric power. And we all know that traditional power generation is one of the main contributors to CO2 footprint. As part of its strategy, ESO has already taken in the past several steps to move from fossil-based locally generated power to grid connections, and in the recent years, more of this power is sourced from local photovoltaic plants. Starting from the status as reported at 2016 SPIE (SPIE 9906-200), the present paper provides an up-to-date view on the key actions that ESO has undertaken to reduce the overall CO2 footprint due to its power usage for the ESO Observatories in the northern regions of Chile, namely La Silla and Paranal, that includes the ESO VLT and will see the ESO’s ELT and the CTA-S coming into operation within the 2020 decade.

Citation Download Citation

G. Filippi, P. Scibior, P. van der Heyden, R. Arsenault, and R. Tamai "Evolution of electrical power provisioning for the ESO installations in Chile: a path for an astronomy with a lower CO₂ footprint", Proc. SPIE 12182, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes IX, 121823Z (29 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2629056

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