Ecuador’s 487-MW Sopladora hydropower plant has been completed, according to state-owned operator CELEC.
The US$755 million facility is located on the Paute River in Azuay and Morono Santiago provinces. The project is the third-largest hydro installation in Ecuador, but does not include a dam, instead relying on water discharged by the nearby 1,075-MW Paute.
CELEC said Sopladora will fulfill about 13% of Ecuador’s total need for energy while allowing the country to cut the cost of importing fossil fuels by more than $280 million per year.
The project was funded in large part by the China Export-Import Bank, which signed a credit agreement with the Ecuadorian government providing $571 million in October 2011.
For more news from Latin America, visit here.