A plan to build a light-polluting green hydrogen plant near one of the world's most important astronomical observatories has been cancelled by the company behind it. The decision is a relief to astronomers all over the world as the site could have caused serious harm to astronomical research.
The project, called INNA, was planned by AES Andes, a subsidiary of the U.S. utility company AES Energy. First proposed in 2024, the $10 billion project caused a stir among astronomers as it was to be located only a few miles from the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Cerro Paranal site, which hosts the Very Large Telescope (VLT), one of the most powerful machines for observing the distant universe. Despite assurances by AES that the lights at the 7,465-acre industrial park would only have a minor effect on nearby supersensitive astronomical instruments, ESO's own calculations showed that light pollution above Paranal could increase by up to 35%. ESO warned that such an increase would undo the advances made by improvements in telescope technology, prohibiting cutting-edge research such as direct observations of exoplanets or study of the most distant galaxies.
