Seven Chilean data-centre projects, one linked to Google, have asked the Servicio de Evaluacion Ambiental, or SEA (Chile's environmental assessment service), for rulings that they fall outside full environmental impact review, according to filings reviewed by El Desconcierto1. Each filing is a consultation asking SEA to confirm in writing that a project need not enter the review system. The newest, Polpaico Campus Norte in Tiltil, was lodged on 17 September.
Diesel stored for backup generators is one of the triggers for full review, and the declared stocks cluster just below the level that sets it off. La Polvora, in Valparaiso, declares 990 tonnes and Puente Alto declares 756 tonnes. Alto Jahuel Campus Sur, in Buin, declares "less than 1,000 tonnes" and gives no exact figure.
SEA cleared an earlier Alto Jahuel scheme in July that declared a stock in the same band. One project landing under a threshold proves little; four doing so, one declining to give a number, fits sizing to the rule better than sizing to outage hours. Developers can answer that a sub-threshold tank covers their outage design, and no filing breaks a rule. Virginia's Senate Finance Committee went after backup diesel by a different route in June, proposing a per-kilowatt fee on installed generators; Chile's trigger counts stored fuel instead.
