ESO’s Paranal and Armazones sites are connected to the Chilean national electricity grid

The ribbon is cut (several times!) to mark the connection of ESO’s Paranal and Armazones observatory sites to the Chilean national grid. The event was attended by Chile’s Minister of Energy, Andrés Rebolledo. In the picture are (from left) Andreas Kaufer, ESO’s Director of Operations, Iván Saavedra, Head of the Electrical Department of the National Energy Commission (CNE), Francisco Alliende, General Manager of the SAESA Group, Roberto Tamai, ESO’s ELT Programme Manager, Andrés Rebolledo, Minister of Energy, Iván Díaz-Molina, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the SAESA Group, Iris Olivares, Regional Minister of Energy of the Antofagasta Region, and Patricio Saglie, Responsible for transmission systems at the SAESA Group. The connection will provide a reliable source of clean energy for ESO’s facilities. The Armazones site has recently seen the commencement of construction work to build ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope, which will be the world’s biggest eye on the sky.