Chile represents one of the largest undeveloped geothermal areas of the world. Despite Chile's good economic performance in the late 1980s and 1990s, geothermal energy did not develop, and Chile has been surpassed by other Latin American countries such as El Salvador and Costa Rica in terms of geothermal development and technology. Currently, Chile has only one geothermal power plant.

Geothermal energy is thermal energy extracted from the Earth's crust. It combines energy from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay. Geothermal energy has been exploited as a source of heat and/or electric power for millennia.