Enel unit Endesa has halted construction on five hydropower projects with a total capacity of 821MW, as they were not found to be socially, environmentally and economically sustainable.
Under a new growth introduced over the last two years, Enel has taken a new approach to investments, which includes reviewing the environmental, social and economic sustainability aspects for all its infrastructural projects.
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Endesa Chile’s board of directors took a decision to waive water exploitation rights for the construction of five hydropower plants.
Endesa Chile CEO Valter Moro said: "In line with the Group’s Strategic Plan, we intend to focus exclusively on the construction of technically and economically feasible infrastructure that is shared with the communities where it will be built.
"As regards these hydropower projects, based on studies that have been conducted, we found that they were no longer sustainable and thus waived our water exploitation rights, restoring them to Endesa Chile so they can be used for another type of development."
The five plants that will no longer be constructed were to be built in Bardon (on Cautín river, La Araucanía, 14MW), Chillán 1 and 2 (Chillán river, Biobio region, 17 MW), Futaleufu (Futaleufu river, Los Lagos region, 1,330MW), Puelo (Puelo River, Los Lagos Region, 750MW) and Huechún (Metropolitan Region, 40MW).
