Italian energy group Enel has announced that it would make a final decision on the controversial HidroAysen hydropower project in Chile by the end of 2016 or in 2017.
In 2011, HidroAysen, a joint venture of Endesa Chile (51%) and Chilean energy group Colbun (49%), had received approval for the construction of five dams and power plants on the Baker and Pascua Rivers with a combined capacity of 2,750 MW for a total investment of US$8bn, but the project has been challenged by environmentalists since then. In 2014, a ministerial commission composed of Chile's ministers of agriculture, energy, mining, economy and health cancelled the permit for the project, but HidroAysen still has legal options to revive the project (even if water rights, which the company continued to pay after the cancellation decision, were relinquished in August 2016).
Chile has also cancelled another large hydropower project developed by an Enel's subsidiary, the 490 MW Neltume hydropower project.