Chilean dams

摘要

Officials in Chile last week approved the construction of five hydropower dams across two major rivers in Patagonia - part of the US$7-billion HidroAysen project, which aims to generate 2.75 gigawatts of power for Chile. But violent demonstrations followed the approval of the dams, and scientists have criticized the environmental-impact assessment used to justify the scheme. Chilean electricity utilities Colbun and Endesa still need permission to build a transmission line that would carry power thousands of kilometres from the remote Aisen region to Santiago. See go.nature.com/gnbvasl for more.