HidroAysén
hydroelectric project in Chile
HidroAysén (Pronounced: EE-droh EYE-sen ) was a controversial megaproject that aimed to build five hydroelectric power plants in Chile's Aysén Region, two on the Baker River and three on the Pascua River (with government subvention included to help relief costs). Planned for construction during the 2010s, the project was definitely cancelled by its contractors in November 2017.
The total expected installed power was 2,750 MW, generating an average 18,430 gigawatt-hours (66,300 TJ) per year, which corresponds to 21% of Central Interconnected System's (SIC) demand by 2020. A 3,000 high-voltage direct current line would have been built between Aysén and the capital Santiago to feed the SIC, including a submarine portion between Chaitén and Puerto Montt. The projected cost was estimated at 3.2 billion U.S. dollars (1.5 trillion Chilean pesos), and would have employed 5,000 workers from Chile and abroad, making it the largest energy project in the country's history.
HidroAysén is owned by a corporation which is a joint venture between Endesa (a subsidiary of Italian conglomerate ENEL), with a 51% stake and by Colbún S.A. which owns the other 49%.
History
The dams were approved on May 9, 2011, under the government of President Sebastián Piñera. The decision was made by eleven counselors on a committee. Ten voted in favor, with one abstention. Twenty-seven days earlier the Foreign Investment Committee was already aware of the decision ahead of time.
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This entry incorporates text from “HidroAysén” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.