Approved Barrancones Plant Must Find New Site

Just days after GDF Suez Energy received approval from Chile's National Environment Commission to proceed with construction on its US$1.1 billion Barrancones thermal power plant in northern Chile, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera announced the plant will be relocated.

Environmentalists had persisted in their objections to the site despite a request from Ignacio Toro, executive director of the National Environment Commission, for them to stop. The site is adjacent to a nature preserve, a refuge for endangered Humboldt penguins and other wildlife.

"GDF Suez and the government agreed to move the power plant … in order to protect that beautiful nature reserve," Pinera said on national television.
An alternative location was not offered in the president's message.

The coal-fired, 540-megawatt plant is scheduled to begin operations in 2012.

The Franco-Belgian firm Suez Energy controls E-CL S.A., Chile’s largest power producer and several other Chilean power projects and has a stake in the port city of Mejillones' regasification plant.