World's darkest and clearest skies at risk from industrial megaproject

I&#x27;m noticing that the reporting on this, including the ESO press release, is vague on exactly what this &quot;industrial megaproject&quot; happens to be. Ordinarily, there is no hesitation to disclose this, unless it&#x27;s a military matter. Or a sacred cow.<p>A sacred cow, indeed. It&#x27;s a green energy operation powered by both wind and solar to generate hydrogen, electricity and ammonia. Here[1] is the AES Andes press release about this project, if you care to read the opposing spin on this matter:<p>&quot;AES Chile submitted an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to Chilean permitting authorities for a proposed industrial-scale green hydrogen project called Inna. The project, which is in early-stage development, could include a variety of solutions, including green hydrogen for export or domestic consumption, aligned with Chile’s National Green Hydrogen Strategy.&quot;<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aesandes.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;press-release&#x2F;aes-andes-submits-environmental-impact-assessment-project-inna" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aesandes.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;press-release&#x2F;aes-andes-submits-...</a><p>Land use. It&#x27;s not just a fossil fuel shill talking point.

When I lived in the Welsh countryside, there were occasional nights where I could not see my hand in front of my face. The requirements were that it was new moon, and that there was slight fog. We also lived deep in a valley, which helped. I had great fun navigating my way to the local pub in complete darkness.<p>The odd thing is that when I recount that experience, some people refuse to believe me. Of course they are all city dwellers.

Would it be unthinkable to just NOT have bright lights pointed at the sky all night? Could they still do this project with severe restrictions on light emissions? If there’s some reason it absolutely must include hundreds of outdoor sodium vapor lights then build it somewhere else.

It’s not just industrial sites. My “local” (4 hours away) dark sky spot is constantly battling light pollution. There’s an industrial complex that’s made an agreement to turn their lights off at midnight. They’ve made deals with the county to replace the lighting to be dark sky friendly, but they still have private land owners that refuse to cooperate and replace their lighting. I have many images of the Milky Way with ranch lights dotting horizon.

I did a bunch of astrophotography in the Atacama desert last year, it was an absolutely phenomenal place. There are a lot of celestial objects you cannot image from the northern hemisphere and there aren&#x27;t many other places in the southern hemisphere with weather conditions that good (maybe Namibia but it doesn&#x27;t have the altitude advantage).<p>The only thing I wish is that some of the parks would be open after dark to shoot landscapes. Most of the parks closed before sunset, so I had to mostly image from roadsides, which was kind of sad.

Not sure this would be affected:<p>The Vera Rubin scope, which cost $600+ million, will see first light this July. It&#x27;s capable of creating a map of the entire available sky every few days. Containing 40B objects, several times more than all previous sky surveys combined.<p>Half of those images are already threatened by constellations of comm satellites. Another concern is spy satellite imaging. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.is&#x2F;RzCNI#selection-779.4-779.14" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.is&#x2F;RzCNI#selection-779.4-779.14</a><p>So what compels AES, a US power company, to build a facility there, in all the world ... which would pump out that much pollution?

On a longer time horizon, we need to figure out how to conduct astronomy without holding large regions (countryside, LEO, etc.) as test articles to control. Constellations like Starlink have already blown through that roadblock and rather than backlash we now see various governments &#x2F; firms following them. LEO will only become more crowded.<p>In a more extreme case we have planetary protection where entire celestial bodies like Mars should remain sterile to preserve the possibility of their further study. It is easy to advance that policy while those bodies remain remote, but <i>if</i> we obtain the capability to develop the inner solar system then, much like LEO, we will do it regardless of the difficulty it imposes on xenobiologists.

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aesandes.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;press-release&#x2F;aes-andes-submits-new-renewable-project-sea-and-reaches-us3-billion-photovoltaic" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aesandes.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;press-release&#x2F;aes-andes-submits-...</a>

A local story about it: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;radio.uchile.cl&#x2F;2025&#x2F;01&#x2F;11&#x2F;proyecto-inna-la-iniciativa-de-hidrogeno-verde-que-preocupa-a-los-astronomos&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;radio.uchile.cl&#x2F;2025&#x2F;01&#x2F;11&#x2F;proyecto-inna-la-iniciati...</a>

Pair this with impact of mega constellations with 10k+ satellites , which not only destroy optical imaging, but also interfere with radio-astronomy

If you were wondering if there was any issue even less important to Americans than the lives of pedestrians and cyclists, it is dark skies.

On another piece of the electromagnetic spectrum, the ALMA radio telescope is also in the Atacama desert, north east of Paranal.<p>The government agreed to a radio quiet zone in the areas surrounding ALMA.<p>But now there&#x27;s Starlink and other satellite constellations coming on line at an unprecedented pace.

Definitely a hard choice between an industrial complex generating thousands of jobs and a glorified camera.

let&#x27;s go back to pre industrial society

The skies may be brightening, but it seems the world is turning darker.

Hampering industry that will bring prosperity to thousands to avoid having to wait to do some specific types of astronomy until Starship is working doesn&#x27;t seem like a good trade-off.

A cynic would read this as as &quot;I can&#x27;t believe our (AES) luck. There&#x27;s a good chance we can squeeze the Europeans for lots of money. We&#x27;ll gladly share some of the proceeds with the new US president&#x27;s cronies for having them do the haggling.&quot;

BANANAs in action, can&#x27;t even build a green energy facility in the literal middle of nowhere without complaints.

Headline is dramatic but misleading. Essentially the entire 7&#x2F;10 of the planet in the ocean has skies as dark as this. Clarity significantly reduces the footprint, but there are massive chunks of mountain ranges untouched by human development in both hemispheres that would be just as clear as here.<p>If clear skies are important enough to block a new development, they should just unlock some land in the Himalayas or Rockies to replace this observatory.