Four injured with burns from hot water accident at CSP plant in Chile

Four workers were injured with burns in an accident at the Cerro Dominador concentrated solar power (CSP) complex in northern Chile on Wednesday night.

The workers were exposed to a leak of high-temperature water while performing inspections of the power plant’s equipment, Grupo Cerro, the company that owns the generation complex, said on Twitter.

Early on, the Chilean government agency in charge of emergencies recorded the accident as an explosion of a boiler at the CSP. Grupo Cerro later clarified that a leak occurred.

Two of the workers are receiving medical attention for minor injuries, while the other two with more serious injuries were transferred to an intensive care unit, the plant’s owner said.

All four workers were employed by a subcontractor, according to Grupo Cerro, which added that it had halted activities at the plant and launched an investigation into the accident.

Located in Chile’s Atacama desert, Cerro Dominador is Latin America’s first CSP plant. It features 10,600 heliostats concentrating solar radiation on a receiver installed atop a 250-metre (820 ft) central tower and a storage system with molten salts that are heated to over 560 degrees Celsius (1,040 F) to generate steam to drive a 110-MW turbine.

The plant was commissioned in 2021.

In late 2019, a fire broke out at the CSP tower while it was still under construction. No injuries were reported at the time.

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