Amanda Maxwell, Latin America Advocate, Washington, DC

Chile

Two months after opening a public tender to study nine alternative transmission line pathways in the Aysén region of Patagonia, the government announced this week that it will not proceed with the tender because the proposals submitted did not meet the technical requirements of the study. According to government sources, the Ministry of Energy received bids from the firms Valgesta and Dessau Engineering on the tender, but both proposals failed to properly model and study the potential paths. Other sources linked to the government explained that the need for transmission studies for the area of Patagonia has lost relevance as the “public electric highway” model is gaining momentum (Electricidad 7/12/12, La Tercera).

This week brought positive news for wind and solar development in Chile with the expansion, approval, and planning of three renewable energy projects.  AES Gener received environmental approval for the 250 megawatt solar project, Los Andes with the first 20MW expected online by 2014. The company Alba has filed an EIA with the Chilean government's environmental evaluation service (SEA) to expand the planned San Pedro wind farm on Chiloé Island to increase capacity from 36 megawatts to 216 ...

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