Chilean government not giving up on large-scale hydro power.
| Autor | Witte-Lebhar, Benjamin |
Nearly two years after pulling the plug on HidroAysen, a massive and highly contested hydroelectric project slated for a largely untouched wilderness area in far southern Chile, government officials are letting it be known that the country's rivers are still open for business.
In January, the same Comite de Ministros (ministers committee) that buried HidroAysen voted to approve a large-scale hydroelectric project for another river, the Cuervo. The Cuervo is located in the Region de Aysen, in the heart of Chilean Patagonia, as are the Baker and Pascua, the two rivers targeted for the ill-fated HidroAysen venture. The Comite de Ministros, headed by Environment Minister Pablo Badenier, represents the top of the bureaucratic totem pole for decisions regarding development projects.
The Cuervo plan, with a price tag of more than US$730 million, calls for the construction of two dams and a 13,000-hectare reservoir. Once completed, the hydroelectric complex would rank among the country's largest, with an estimated generating capacity of 640 megawatts (MW). Chile's most powerful hydroelectric plant, the Ralco station on the Bio Bio River, has an installed capacity of 690 MW. Ralco, in the centrally located Region del Bio Bio, is owned by the Spanish/Italian energy giant Endesa. The developer behind the Cuervo River project, Energia Austral, is a joint venture between Glencore, an Anglo-Swiss trading and mining company, and Origin Energy, an Australian firm.
The Jan. 18 decision represents a major setback for the country's environmental lobby, which has made opposition to large-scale dams a central part of its platform. Organizations like the Coalicion Ciudadana por Aysen Reserva de Vida (CCARV), one of dozens involved in the high-profile umbrella group Patagonia sin Represas (Patagonia without Dams), see large-scale dams as an outdated technology that may be cost effective for developers--often foreign-owned multinationals--but cause incalculable damage to river valley ecosystems while offering little apparent benefit to adjacent communities.
"This a pristine zone, gorgeous, of superlative beauty," CCARV spokesperson Peter Hartmann said of the Cuervo River valley in an interview with Radio Universidad de Chile. "It's one of the prettiest places in all of Chile, with an extremely high environmental value. And they want to destroy it; flood areas that, in addition, are home to unique species, like the Darwin's frog, which is at risk of extinction."
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