Nicola Willand (RMIT University) spent two weeks in Santiago to participate in an international meeting and learn about energy poverty in Chile. In this article, she and her host, Alejandra Cortés (University of Chile) reflect on the experience.
Niki writes
In October this year, I spent two weeks in Santiago at the University of Chile to participate in the international webinar ‘Energy Poverty: Integrating International Learning to Build Better Bridges between Science and Policy‘ (link to recording on YouTube). The webinar was organised by RedPE, the Chilean Energy Poverty Research Network and included Dr Sergio Tirado-Herrero, Autonomous University Madrid, and Assoc. Prof. Rosie Day, University of Birmingham, both online. Dr Alejandra Cortes-Fuentes, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Director of RedPE and an FPRN Energy Poverty in Early Career fellow, had also set up talks with undergraduate, Masters and PhD students as well as discussions on inter-university collaborations and conversations with ministries and government agencies that provided insights into the government’s activities to advance energy equity in the Chilean low-carbon transition.
In contrast to Ale, I was not well prepared. I had a 41-day Babble Spanish hot streak and become an avid listener of the Coffee Club Espagno podcast, but I still needed Ale to navigate the city and order food. I had listened to Isabelle Allende’s latest book but had not read up on Chilean history or culture. So, I was surprised that Santiago was rather beige in colour and sentiment and not as lush, green and sensuous as I had expected. Ale explained that Chile is the ‘boring’ country: dependable and with a relative stable economy compared to other South American countries. I prefer to call it ’refined’, considering the extensive metro network, safe bike paths and lively public park culture.
With regards to housing and energy disadvantage, I was fascinated by the uncoordinated retrofits of many apartment buildings in the city. As Ale explained, owners corporations lack the funds for insulation and other building improvements as many owners cannot afford the fees. Consequently, individual apartment owners upgrade their own windows, and the patchwork of windows frames and randomly fixed air-conditioning units indicates the process of gentrification in city apartments.
By contrast, I was amazed by the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism’s programme to retrofit all detached and semi-detached social housing units. Thanks to government subsidies, social housing in Chile is owned, rather than rented, property — in contrast to Australia and many other countries. The Ministry of Housing and Urbanism offers subsidies that cover almost the full costs of insulating the building envelopes, draught proofing and mechanical ventilation for low-income households in the colder regions of the country and helps with the implementation. Notwithstanding challenges in uptake and effectiveness – more about this in a FPRN/RedPE webinar in April – I was impressed by the audacity and scale of such an undertaking. The Ministry’s basic premise seemed to be that implementing comprehensive home retrofits is beyond the capabilities of many individual households and that they need financial as well as practical assistance. But even for the Ministry, retrofitting apartments with all its governance challenges, was a task too difficult to tackle.
On the energy supply side, there was some discussion about green hydrogen plans and concerns by Indigenous groups about the adverse environmental and social impacts such developments may have. The share of Indigenous people in Chile is about three times greater than in Australia, yet Chilean Indigenous people also seem to experience energy disadvantage in terms of access to affordable electricity and systemic inequalities like adequate and culturally sensitive housing. Some households in very remote areas in Chile lack any access to electricity.
With regards to RedPE, I was impressed by their success in integrating knowledge across career stages, disciplines, countries and sectors. The members I met ranged from undergraduate students to full time academic staff across the architecture and engineering disciplines. Two PhD students are active members, participating in weekly meetings from Europe, and at least one member has moved to a relevant government department, helping to form conversations between researchers and policy makers. And notably, they have recently collaborated in the Salvaguardas para una Transición Energética Justa en Chile (Safeguards for a Just Energy Transition in Chile) manifesto that presents a set of 10 principles, designed to ensure that Chile’s shift toward cleaner energy is socially equitable, environmentally respectful and grounded in human rights, combined with practical recommendations. For me, it is the explicit inclusion of procedural justice and gender aspects that distinguishes the document from the European and Australian energy poverty and right to energy strategies with which I am familiar.
I was also humbled by the Chilean thoughtfulness for linguistic inclusion. Ale had organised simultaneous translation for the webinar as well as the student meetings – for the students as well as for me. To my shame, I must admit that in Australia we just assume that everyone speaks English…
Moving forward, we have planned an FPRN/RedPE webinar in April 2026 and more face-to-face events with Australian researchers and advocates in February, when Ale will visit Melbourne. Watch out for the invitations in our regular newsletter.
Ale writes
I was so delighted to hear how Nicola perceived Santiago during her visit. Seeing the city, my culture, and our architecture through her eyes made me look at everything with a fresh perspective. I enjoyed her endless questions about what she noticed in the streets and her curiosity to understand how everyday life works here. To my shame, I couldn’t always answer everything as accurately as I would’ve liked. As we walked around, she kept taking photos of things that have long blended into my everyday landscape, and only her observations made me stop and rethink the “why” behind them.
We had two intense weeks of work with students and stakeholders from the energy sector. She joined two workshops with postgraduate students and gave a lecture for an undergraduate course on energy poverty, which is open to all faculties at the Universidad de Chile. Even though she doesn’t speak Spanish fluently, I was impressed by how quickly she could understand and engage with students who were trying their best to communicate in “Spanglish.” It was also great to see how many students can speak English fluently and that those who aren’t as confident still make the effort to communicate.
At the international seminar, Nicola delivered a remarkable reflection on her research findings on energy poverty in Australia. Her presentation caught the attention of several policymakers from different ministries, and she had the chance to speak with many of them during the coffee break. I was pleased that she later met with some of them for deeper conversations about topics of mutual interest.
I feel that all these activities wove themselves into a shared learning journey, not just academically, but in a deeper way that made us both reflect on the challenges shaping our societies and the institutions we depend on. Having Nicola in Chile was truly an honour, and I hope that next time we can enjoy it on vacation instead!
