Within the framework of the beginning of a new Early Citizen Participation (PCT) process, carried out by TEG Chile, the company that will carry out the “Gente Grande” Green Hydrogen project in the Province of Tierra del Fuego, important background information was revealed regarding the advances in environmental and engineering matters, this after carrying out various environmental baseline studies that are being carried out starting in the summer of 2022. It is worth mentioning that the project has a 60-year projection.
Both in Porvenir and Primavera, TEG Chile held an open citizen participation day, in which both the community and local authorities were informed of the information related to the various environmental baselines that have been carried out so far. , providing new information regarding the state of progress, sampling efforts, as well as the territorial layout of the campaigns carried out. On the occasion, the company promised to deliver results in the next PCT, to be held in the coming months.
The participation instance is framed in the principles of maximum publicity, equality and non-discrimination, transparency, good faith and prevention, which requires a recent guide from the Environmental Evaluation Service, which incorporates the recommendations of the Escazú Agreement.
Víctor Fernández, Public Affairs Manager of TEG Chile, stated that: “After more than a year and a half of environmental studies and advances in engineering, we can confirm that the Gente Grande project contemplates the installation of approximately 460 state-of-the-art wind turbines, the burying of 100% of the transmission lines; in addition to two ports; one focused on the unloading of wind turbines and the second for the export of green ammonia, which will also be used for the unloading of equipment associated with the plant. Likewise, a process plant and a desalination plant will be implemented.”
Environment
Meanwhile, Rodolfo Rivero, the company’s Environment and Permits manager, emphasized that exhaustive work has been carried out to collect environmental information to address the evaluation of impacts and the design of measures in the most accurate way possible. “For example, since the summer of 2022, we have completely studied the situation of the territory in at least six seasonal campaigns, which have been carried out on the different environmental components required by the environmental authority.”
Regarding the studies, the environmental manager stated that: “In the area of terrestrial biota there were more than 4 thousand hours of monitoring, with 98 air traffic stations, 172 fauna monitoring stations, including 98 air traffic and 95 lagoon census stations, with different technologies, and 142 stations for the characterization of flora and vegetation.
On the other hand, a complete sampling of the marine ecosystems of Gente Grande Bay was considered with at least 27 points replicated in the 4 seasons of the year, and the analysis of the oceanographic conditions.
Employability
Regarding the employability projections contemplated by the Gente Grande project in its different stages, this – at the peak of construction – will consider the hiring of about 6 thousand people, for the two shifts, and in the operation stage, it is expected the hiring of 600 jobs directly and another 750 indirectly in the Province of Tierra del Fuego. Figures that are contemplated as of March of this year and that may suffer some variation due to changes in engineering, which will be definitive at the time of entering the SEA in September 2024.
Date: March 21th, 2024.
