{"id":334819,"date":"2010-02-18T09:06:08","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T14:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.circleofblue.org\/waternews\/?p=11932"},"modified":"2010-02-18T09:06:08","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T14:06:08","slug":"the-price-of-renewable-energy-pursuits-in-patagonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/334819","title":{"rendered":"The Price of Renewable Energy Pursuits in Patagonia"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Chile\u2019s Trackless Mountain Wilderness, A Clash Between Pristine Rivers and Hydropower Prospects <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Patagonia<\/a><\/p>\n
Photo \u00a9 Aubrey Parker<\/a><\/div>\n
The hydropower potential of Patagonia in Chile has attracted growing interest from multinational corporations. Pictured above is a view from Patagonia\u2019s “Valley of the Explorers,” located at the terminal moraine of the Expolaradores Glacier.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

By Aubrey Ann Parker
\nCircle of Blue<\/strong><\/p>\n

High in Chile\u2019s Andes Mountains, glacier-fed rivers tumble down knife-edge slopes in a froth of swift water barreling through tight canyons. Chile already produces more than 40 percent of its electricity from hydropower, but how much further Chile is prepared to advance its alternative energy industry\u2014especially the hydropower sector\u2014is now a question that has come to rest uneasily along the rocky banks of the Pascua and Baker rivers, two of the most remote and cleanest rivers in the world. <\/p>\n

Both rivers are viewed by the multinational company HidroAys\u00e9n <\/a>as the fuel for its $US 5 billion project, which includes the construction of five large dams\u2014some higher than 100 meters\u2014to hold back enough water to power 2,750 megawatts of electricity, the equivalent to three mid-sized nuclear power stations. Additionally, more than 20 percent of the country\u2019s electricity would depend on these dams, located on glacial rivers which some scientists fear are threatened by climate change. <\/p>\n


\nBig Project, Big Dispute<\/strong>
\nEverything about the initiative, which the companies propose to start building in 2010 and opponents are working feverishly to permanently halt, is oversized. Roadless valleys would host the huge dams and deep reservoirs. Electricity produced would be sent north along a transmission corridor 150 meters wide and 2,300 kilometers long to Chile’s biggest cities. It would cut through vast temperate forests distinctive only to Chile\u2019s Patagonia region.<\/p>\n

\"Inside<\/a><\/p>\n
Photo \u00a9 Aubrey Parker<\/div>\n
Inside the Rio Iba\u00f1ez Valley in the Ays\u00e9n region of Patagonia. Local organizations have struggled with water rights, 98 percent of which are owned by electricity companies.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The HydroAys\u00e9n proposal has opened more of Patagonia\u2019s mountains to hydro-exploration than almost anyone anticipated. Three other projects\u2014proposed by a different multinational firm\u2014have gained new traction in the political arena after lying dormant for years. <\/p>\n

HidroAys\u00e9n engineers declined to be interviewed for this article. But Hernan Salazar, chief executive officer of HidroAys\u00e9n, told reporters last year his company\u2019s hydro projects will advance the alternative energy strategy in Chile. “The HidroAys\u00e9n project provides a solution to Chile’s energy challenges,” said Salazar. “It contributes to the country’s energy security and independence and to the diversification of its energy base. It is clean, renewable, and reliable.” <\/p>\n

But opponents see the huge dams, new roads, submerged lands and linear clear-cuts for transmission lines as an abomination to one of the world\u2019s last great wild places. The pursuit of alternative energies, at least as they’re proposed for Patagonia, raises far more environmental risks than benefits, say Chilean environmentalists. \u201cBasically what we\u2019d be saying is, \u2018Let\u2019s dam all of Patagonia, so that we can have enough electricity to keep digging holes for mines and destroy the north.\u2019 It is just destruction fostering more destruction,\u201d says Claudio Ivan Meier Vargas, a hydrologic engineer and professor in the civil engineering department at Chile\u2019s University of Concepci\u00f3n. <\/p>\n

Patagonia\u2019s Wild Beauty<\/strong>
\nStretched across the bottom tip of South America, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, the Patagonia region is bisected by a bone-bare spine of Andean mountains that serves as a natural border between Argentina and Chile. A woodland balancing on the edge of civilization, Patagonia is richly biodiverse and sparsely populated. An escape for the outdoorsy, eco-adventurer type, the region of Ays\u00e9n received 145,000 tourists in 2008\u2014a figure that is expected to grow by 20 percent this year. Its pristine rivers are some of the purest in the world, and possess sediment transportation systems that play an integral role in the southern hemisphere\u2019s oceanography.<\/p>\n

Less than one percent of the Earth\u2019s surface is covered by freshwater ecosystems, but they contain 10 percent of the biodiversity\u2014and the extinction rate in freshwater ecosystems is four to six times faster than in other important ecosystems.”
\n–Gary Graham Hughes, International Rivers<\/div>\n

Largely due to the region\u2019s abundant beauty and ecological values, the environmental evaluation process for the HidroAys\u00e9n projects is now on its third revision since 2006\u2014having been bounced from project engineers to government officials to local advocacy groups, and back again. The final decision now lies in the hands of the Ays\u00e9n Regional Environmental Authority, COREMA. <\/p>\n

These government-appointed officials will ultimately answer to the newly elected conservative president\u2014Sebasti\u00e1n Pi\u00f1era, who takes office in March\u2014instead of the voting citizens living in the Ays\u00e9n region where the dams are proposed. The new government has the difficult task of balancing domestic job creation and alternative energy systems with international relations and nature preservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly one-third of the world\u2019s rivers are flowing freely,\u201d says Gary Graham Hughes<\/a>, the Patagonia Campaign<\/a> coordinator for International Rivers, a conservation organization based in California. \u201cLess than one percent of the Earth\u2019s surface is covered by freshwater ecosystems, but they contain 10 percent of the biodiversity\u2014and the extinction rate in freshwater ecosystems is four to six times faster than in other important ecosystems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chile’s Energy Grid<\/strong>
\nElectricity in Chile is separated into four independent grid systems\u2014El Sistema Interconectado del Norte Grande (SING) in the north, El Sistema Interconectado Central (SIC) in the central regions, Ays\u00e9n in the mid-south, and Magallanes (GENI) in the southern-most region. Private electricity companies hook up to one of these grid systems to distribute power. The HidroAys\u00e9n projects will provide electricity to the SIC grid via the 2,300 kilometers of power lines, built by the Canadian-owned company, TransSelec<\/a>\u2014of which an Environmental Impact Assessment has yet to be submitted to COREMA. <\/p>\n

Chile\u2019s energy is mainly distributed as geothermal power, hydropower, or natural gas imported from Argentina. The country\u2019s economic growth over the past two decades has translated into increased energy consumption\u2014especially electricity\u2014to meet the demands of industrial, residential, commercial and public venues. In this 20-year span, Chile has experienced a 5.5 percent yearly increase in overall energy demanded, while electricity-specific consumption has risen 7.5 percent annually, according to the Chilean Commission for Nuclear Energy.<\/p>\n

\"As<\/a><\/p>\n
Photo \u00a9 Aubrey Parker<\/div>\n
As part of the “run-of-the-river” Rucue Hydroelectric Project, this Penstock delivers water from the Rio Laja to hydraulic turbines. The projects proposed for Patagonia will instead dam and flood vast reservoirs.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Political and regional conflicts, ever-increasing energy prices, and unsustainable hydrocarbons have made energy autonomy driven by hydropower increasingly appealing in Chile. HidroAys\u00e9n argues, the dams will provide affordable electricity for the booming country and prevent rolling blackouts like those Chile experienced a decade ago. Furthermore, HidroAys\u00e9n\u2019s Web site says that the projects will attain much needed energy independence from foreign fossil fuels\u2014specifically natural gas, a major source of electricity generation, which is imported from Argentina\u2014in addition to providing a low-carbon alternative energy source. Currently, 55 percent of the country’s electricity supply and 72 percent of the overall energy is imported as natural gas, oil and coal. And while neighboring Bolivia is a large producer and exporter of natural gas, the country will not trade directly with Chile because of a 19th century border dispute.<\/p>\n

To replace growing foreign fossil fuel demand with a domestic low-carbon alternative, the private electric utility Endesa <\/a>teamed up with the private Chilean electricity generator Colb\u00fan SA<\/a>in 2007 and created HidroAys\u00e9n. HidroAys\u00e9n\u2019s asserts on its Web site that Chile\u2019s energy demand will increase annually by 500 Mega Watts (MW) <\/a>of imported electricity when compared to economic growth projections for the next decade.<\/p>\n

However, the companies providing this \u201cdomestic\u201d energy alternative are not entirely Chilean themselves. Endesa began as a public entity in 1943, but was privatized during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, was sold to a Spanish company in 1999, and then to the Italian Enel company last year. Meanwhile, Colb\u00fan SA is owned by Chile\u2019s Matte Group. The pair created the HidroAys\u00e9n company specifically for the five projects on the Pascua and the Baker rivers in the Ays\u00e9n region, which will generate 2,750 MW of power. <\/p>\n

Hydropower is currently responsible for almost half of Chile\u2019s electric energy production\u2014if these projects pass, more than 20 percent of the country\u2019s electricity would come from the HidroAys\u00e9n dams. These fast-flowing, glacial-fed rivers have low-flow variability and very high electrical production potential. These consistent southern rivers would compensate for the variability of power generation by the flow of central rivers, which are more susceptible to droughts. The power generation variability could be reduced by 14 percent if the Pascua and Baker projects pass, according to EULA Environmental Science Center<\/a> at the University of Concepci\u00f3n in Chile.<\/p>\n

Some Chileans fear this centralization would actually make the electricity system less stable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the HidroAys\u00e9n projects were to fail, they would be making up almost one-third of the Chilean electricity system,\u201d says Fabien Bourlon, who studies tourism as a scientific concept at the Center for the Investigation of Ecosystems in Patagonia<\/a> in Cochrane. Cochrane also serves as the basecamp for HidroAys\u00e9n engineers.<\/p>\n

Ays\u00e9n locals argue that their economy, which is based largely on aquaculture, fishing, livestock, and eco-tourism, will suffer from the proposed dams and their accompanying power lines. Electricity production that locals say they will not benefit from. All of the electricity created by the HydroAys\u00e9n dams is to be connected to the SIC grid and sent north to the capital city, Santiago. <\/p>\n

Santiago contains nearly half of the Chilean population, and its grid system consumes the most electricity in the country\u2014compared to the 100,000 residents of the entire Ays\u00e9n region. Meanwhile the mining industry north of Santiago consumes about 25 percent of the national electricity.<\/p>\n

Although there are no copper mines in southern Patagonia, the mining industry is still looking to profit from the region. <\/p>\n

\"Located<\/a><\/p>\n
Photo \u00a9 Aubrey Parker<\/div>\n
Located on the Rio Ibanez, the Dead Forest or Bosque Muerto\u2019s sediment spawned from the Hudson Volcano, raising water levels and flooding the area.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Nearly two decades ago, the first large-scale hydroelectric projects in Ays\u00e9n were proposed along the Blanco, Condor and Cuervo rivers by XStrata<\/a>, a Swiss mining company. <\/p>\n

Xstrata originally wanted to create localized energy to process aluminum imports from Australia. However, at the time the salmon industry was instead booming in Ays\u00e9n and the projects never came to fruition. Now the TranSelec power lines that would be created for the five HidroAys\u00e9n dams\u2014along with the crash of the Chilean aquaculture industry within the last year\u2014have provided a loophole for these three projects to be resurrected. The dams were first submitted to COREMA in 2006, but were found to be insufficient.<\/p>\n

XStrata has re-opened its hydropower bid with the creation of Energ\u00eda Austral<\/a>, a combination of the three projects, which would generate 1,000 MW of electricity. The first Energ\u00eda Austral project for the Cuervo River that was submitted to COREMA last October has received more than 1,000 comments and questions from the public. If approved, construction of the Cuervo dam could begin as early as 2012. A $US 730 million investment, the dam would be the second largest in Chile, generate 690 MW, and create as many as 1,600 jobs\u2014350 to local Ays\u00e9n residents, according to The Patagonia Times<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Project coordinators have until June to revise the draft and respond to inquiries. Like the Energ\u00eda Austral projects, HidroAys\u00e9n has until June to respond to the more than 5,000 comments its second revision received last November. Energ\u00eda Austral is looking to hook up to the Canadian-owned TranSelec\u2019s 2,300 kilometers of transmission lines, estimated at $US 1.6 billion. Because a formal project has not yet been submitted to COREMA, locals can only guess at where the lines will run. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are talking about a huge project\u2014the largest ever done in Chile in terms of investment if you add the dams and the transmission,\u201d says Vargas of the nearly $US 5 billion joint-venture between HidroAys\u00e9n and TranSelec, \u201cand one very important part of the project\u2014the one that will probably have the biggest environmental impact\u2014we still don\u2019t know what it looks like or where it goes, formally. We just know by inference. But you are not going to build 2,000 megawatts if you don\u2019t have a place to put it\u2014so obviously they are the same project.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a><\/p>\n
Photo \u00a9 Aubrey Parker<\/div>\n
In Puerto Rio Tranquilo, a town along the General Carrera Lake, a billboard by the Patagonia Sin Represas organization features an image of Patagonian landscape with photoshopped-in electric tower reading \u201cThe worst image for the country: alternatives exist. Patagonia Without Dams!” in Spanish.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Vargas says, if done correctly, these lines would run under the ocean floor and then reappear on the Chiloe Island, going through the center of Chile, \u201cwhere native forests and biodiversity has already been disrupted, and agriculture, cities, and roads is all there is.\u201d This would be very expensive, thus the Ays\u00e9n community estimates that the lines will go directly through the mainland of Patagonia, cutting through many national parks and reserves.<\/p>\n

Even the accumulation of many parks into one large Patagonia National Park<\/a>, \u201ca world-class park similar in size to Yosemite National Park in California,\u201d may not be enough to save the land from being clear-cut to make way for the towers. They are estimated to be 150 meters wide by 2,300 kilometers and will run from Patagonia to central Chile.<\/p>\n

\u201cApparently the line of cables will go next to the only highway in the region, through many of the small tourists towns,\u201d says Ian Farmer, a British ex-patriate who has lived in Chile for the last 17 years and spent the last decade working as a tour guide in the Ays\u00e9n region. Farmer works mostly with Centro de Turismo Cientifico Center for Scientific Toursim, which is comprised of 10 different companies in the region, and puts together programs that differ from typical tourism. The trips tend to be for study\u2014archaeology, limnology, whale counting and even coordinating volunteer work. \u201cThere is a lot concern for the way the whole thing is progressing,\u201d says Farmer, whose home is located just 300 meters from where the Transelec power lines are expected to run. This proximity will devalue the property and make his house unsellable, says Farmer. <\/p>\n

While Ays\u00e9n is the second most southern region of Chile and is the second largest in terms of area, it is the least populated. The world\u2019s third largest glaciers feed the Patagonian rivers where the dams are projected. Cattle and sheep farming have supported the traditional economy, along with timber harvesting. In recent years, salmon farming and eco-tourism have provided financial assets to local communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cChile was the second world producer for salmon and trout, but the aquaculture industry was very clearly unsustainable and everybody knew this,\u201d says Vargas. Last summer, the ISNA virus, believed to have come from Norwegian eggs, devastated the aquaculture industry. The illness spread rapidly amongst the fish because smaller nets had been implemented to keep the salmon in close proximity as the industry boomed. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow lots of these small towns are just deserted, and many companies went bankrupt. The other ones are trying to renegotiate their debts\u2014it\u2019s a huge mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the Ays\u00e9n community continues to struggle to switch from the destructive patterns of logging and cattle farming, to eco-tourism and fishing. Experts say more large-scale dam proposals for Patagonia\u2019s rivers will continue to appear. Bourlon worries about the Energ\u00eda Austral projects attracting more mining and industrial development to Patagonia, which could have negative effects on tourism. <\/p>\n

\"Patagonia<\/a><\/p>\n
Photo \u00a9 Aubrey Parker<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe dams will radically change development perspective,\u201d says Bourlon. \u201cMy feeling is that it will not benefit Ays\u00e9n as a region, because Ays\u00e9n needs sustainable productivities. The salmon industry is manageable and can have benefit to Ays\u00e9n, but in terms of regional development, the dams will definitely not be positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the federal level, proposed constitutional reform by outgoing President Michelle Bachelet could have implications in this region. Leftover from the Pinochet regime, water rights in Chile are currently considered private property. A few weeks ago, however, an initiative that recognizes freshwater access as a national security concern and declares the resource a public good cleared its first hurdle in Parliament. Approved by the Chamber of Deputies, the amendment says that freshwater availability is more critical to national security than fossil fuels<\/a>. <\/p>\n

During Bachelet\u2019s term, the government has helped protect six river basins in southern Chile from dam projects, according to local media<\/a>. Just this month the Ministry of Public Works denied 30 electric company requests for water rights on three rivers in the southern basins. However, this does not reflect how water rights already owned by electric companies will be used.<\/p>\n

But these decisions and the proposed constitutional reform could be turned over by the incoming administration. <\/p>\n

In March, Pi\u00f1era will be sworn in as the Chilean president, the country\u2019s first conservative leader in two decades. Shortly after he will name new COREMA officials, who will be relatively inexperienced in regards to the Ays\u00e9n projects. These board members, however, will ultimately decide if the Environmental Impact Assessments for both the HidroAys\u00e9n and the Energ\u00eda Austral projects have answered the public comments and should proceed. <\/p>\n

And the new president will be on COREMA\u2019s top list of advisors. While Pi\u00f1era has promised one million new jobs and six percent economic growth this year, the incoming president has not said a lot about the projects in Patagonia. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is still a fight,\u201d Farmer says. \u201cThe public services speaking out against the projects\u2014that will prolong the process\u2014and both companies will need to become more longwinded in their responses. That will have an effect on cost and the amount of time that they can keep investing at this stage of the project. That is my hope, but it might be a vain hope.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nAubrey Ann Parker is a reporter for Circle of Blue. This article is based on two weeks of extensive research in hydropower Parker conducted through the Graham Scholars Program<\/a> at the University of Michigan in the Spring of 2009. Read the Graham Scholars’ complete critique of the HidroAys\u00e9n Environmental Impact Assessment here<\/a>. Parker can be reached at aubrey@circleofblue.org.<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Chile\u2019s Trackless Mountain Wilderness, A Clash Between Pristine Rivers and Hydropower Prospects Photo \u00a9 Aubrey Parker The hydropower potential of Patagonia in Chile has attracted growing interest from multinational corporations. Pictured above is a view from Patagonia\u2019s “Valley of the Explorers,” located at the terminal moraine of the Expolaradores Glacier. By Aubrey Ann Parker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-334819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5813"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}