Solar Energy and Lithium: Genealogy of the Solar Ponds in the Salar de Atacama (1970s) (2022)
Felipe A. López (Author)
Icon: Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology
Volume: 27
Issue: 2
Pages: 90-126
Edition Details: Issue theme: Advances in the Research of the History of Solar Energy Technologies
Language: English
The Salar de Atacama is home to two of the main lithium mining companies, Albemarle and SQM. This salt flat, located in the north of Chile, has not only lithium but also potassium and other salts in high concentration levels that complement the production of these companies. Together, these companies exported more than 900 million US dollars worth of production in 2018. The process for the extraction of salts is based on the sun as a source of energy, using solar ponds technology. Apparently imported from the USA, the technology has an older history in northern Chile than is generally believed. In the light of Basalla’s ideas, the process of evolution of this technology is reviewed, following what Gille defined as technical lines. In implementation of this technology, the article will review how the processes of ‘continuity’, ‘novelty’, and ‘selection’ intertwine and overlap. For that purpose, the period between 1974 and 1980 will be revisited, the years in which the solar ponds technology was consolidated in lithium mining in Chile, and when Foote Mineral Company (US mining company) and Corfo (the Chilean State Corporation for the promotion of production) signed an agreement which led to the creation of the Sociedad Chilena del Litio, the predecessor of what is now known as Albemarle. The article will also review the different designs of solar ponds that existed, which, as will be seen, “did not compete” to be included in lithium mining, showing the non-linear trajectory of this technology and how factors other than technical ones influence and determine this selection.
...MoreArticle Nelson Arellano-Escudero (2022) Introduction: Advances in the Research of the History of Solar Energy Technologies. Icon: Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology (pp. 11-16).
Similar Citations
Article
Nelson Arellano-Escudero;
(2019)
Research notes about History of the Solar Energy Technologies (XIX-XX): Heritage, Archives & Memory
(/isis/citation/CBB442325855/)
Article
Nelson Arellano-Escudero;
(2021)
Fronteras solares de Chile. Gobernanza de tecnologías solares en zonas extremas: Desierto, Antártica, Polinesia y Espacio exterior (1976-2011) [Solar Frontiers of Chile. Governance of Solar Technologies in Extreme Zones: Desert, Antarctica, Polynesia, and Outer Space (1976-2011)]
(/isis/citation/CBB779449049/)
Article
Nelson Arellano Escudero;
(2011)
La planta solar de desalación de agua de las salinas (1872). Literatura y memoria de una experiencia pionera; The Solar Plant for Water Desalinization at Las Salinas (1872). Literature and Memory of a Pioneering Experience
(/isis/citation/CBB774626816/)
Article
Nelson Arellano-Escudero;
(2018)
Búsquedas paralelas del poder solar en la década de 1970: MIT, Universidad de Barcelona, CORFO y Batelle Institute. [Parallel Research of the Solar Power in the 1970 Decade: MIT, University Of Barcelona, CORFO, and Batelle Institute]
(/isis/citation/CBB458057809/)
Article
Vergara, Angela;
(2005)
The Recognition of Silicosis: Labor Unions and Physicians in the Chilean Copper Industry, 1930s--1960s
(/isis/citation/CBB000800012/)
Article
Thomas Miller Klubock;
(2021)
The Early History of Water Wars in Chile: Rivers, Ecological Disaster and Multinational Mining Companies
(/isis/citation/CBB123904559/)
Book
Sebastián Ureta;
Patricio Flores;
(2022)
Worlds of Gray and Green: Mineral Extraction as Ecological Practice
(/isis/citation/CBB555291139/)
Article
Hidalgo Lehuede, Jorge;
Castillo Martos, Manuel;
(2004)
Antonio de O'Brien y la explicación de los minerales de Huantajaya, sus nombres y beneficio (1765)
(/isis/citation/CBB000530033/)
Book
Marcos Cueto;
Eden Medina;
Ivan da Costa Marques;
Christina Holmes;
(2014)
Beyond Imported Magic: Essays on Science, Technology, and Society in Latin America
(/isis/citation/CBB341148554/)
Article
Bernardita Escobar Andrae;
Nelson Arellano Escudero;
(Summer 2019)
Green Innovation from the Global South: Renewable Energy Patents in Chile, 1877–1910
(/isis/citation/CBB305701632/)
Article
Wes Wallace;
Greg de Moore;
(2024)
Edward Trautner (1890–1978), a pioneer of psychopharmacology
(/isis/citation/CBB394604306/)
Article
Christopher L. Heth;
(2019)
Energy on demand: A brief history of the development of the battery
(/isis/citation/CBB792639138/)
Article
David B. Landon;
Timothy A. Tumberg;
(1996)
Archeological Perspectives on the Diffusion of Technology: An Example from the Ohio Trap Rock Mine Site
(/isis/citation/CBB831006428/)
Chapter
Regine MATHIAS;
(2020)
Knowledge on Mining and Smelting and Its Dissemination in the Edo Period
(/isis/citation/CBB028133405/)
Article
Arellano Escudero, Nelson;
Roca Rosell, Antoni;
(2022)
Maria Telkes, Giorgio Nebbia and Promotion of an International Network of Solar Studies (ca. 1955)
(/isis/citation/CBB619720401/)
Article
Helge Kragh;
(2016)
The Source of Solar Energy, ca. 1840–1910: From Meteoric Hypothesis to Radioactive Speculations
(/isis/citation/CBB770651425/)
Book
James B. Breckinridge;
Alec M. Pridgeon;
(2022)
With Stars in Their Eyes: The Extraordinary Lives and Enduring Genius of Aden and Marjorie Meinel
(/isis/citation/CBB048835120/)
Article
Jean Gecit;
(2022)
The First Steps in the Development of Solar Energy in West Africa (1960–1973)
(/isis/citation/CBB416331927/)
Book
Daniel A. Barber;
(2016)
A house in the sun: Modern architecture and solar energy in the Cold War
(/isis/citation/CBB252946784/)
Chapter
Cesare Silvi;
(2009)
La storia dell'uso dell'energia solare sulla Terra
(/isis/citation/CBB464838538/)
Be the first to comment!