| South America
Other big news from Argentina is that the 750MW Río Grande de Córdoba plant, the region’s largest pumped storage project, is set for a major upgrade. Currently operating at only 50% efficiency due to ageing infrastructure, a US$100 million investment aims to modernise the facility, restoring its full operational potential. In addition, the 1310MW Santa Cruz River hydropower development has reached 50% of construction progress. This large-scale, almost US$5 billion investment is 70% financed by the China Gezhouba Group Company Limited, in partnership with Argentine firms. Currently only utilising about 20% of its estimated
hydropower potential, to help support further development, Argentina has implemented several policies and incentives including feed-in tariffs and PPAs specially targeting small hydro schemes up to 30MW.
Bolivia
Another country to watch, according to the IHA, is Bolivia. Currently only using around 2% of its estimated hydropower potential, with 80% of untapped capacity located in very remote areas, it has a project pipeline that included the 3000MW binational Rio Maderia project, along with several medium and small-scale ones already. Underway.
Bolivia is prioritising large-scale projects through
state-owned utilities. Several schemes soon due for completion include the 292MW Ivirizu cascade project which is expected to swing into full operation by March 2025, plus the Miguillas hydropower complex. Comprising the 86MW Umapalca and119MW Palillada plants, these have anticipated completion dates of October 2025 and December 2026 respectively.
Brazil Hydropower contributed to 67% of Brazilian electricity
generation in 2023 and numerous small hydro projects were connected to the grid. Adding a total of 118MW
The top ten ranking South American countries by installed hydropower capacity in 2023
1. Brazil – 109,896MW 2. Venezuela – 17,042MW 3. Colombia – 13, 206MW 4. Argentina – 11,359MW 5. Paraguay – 8810MW 6. Chile – 7517MW 7. Peru – 5515MW 8. Ecuador – 5192MW 9. Uruguay – 1538MW 10. Bolivia – 759MW
With a total installed capacity of 181GW, South America added 1203MW of capacity in 2023. The top four countries contributing to this were Colombia with 643MW, followed by Chile with 228MW, while Brazil added 118MW with Ecuador in fourth place and 1MW of new hydropower.
Source: IHA’s World Hydropower Outlook 2024
in installed capacity, these brought the total number of operating projects in the country to 1330. Looking at larger schemes, 34 projects totalling 438MW are in advanced construction stages, while 70 projects totalling 1249MW received licensing approval and began construction. With these developments, over 60% of Brazil’s estimated 172GW hydropower potential has already been developed.
As well as tackling the challenges caused by drought conditions, Brazil has also been facing significant local opposition towards hydropower. This, according to the IHA, has been driven by concerns about impacts on the community and ecosystems and has halted several projects. More recently, the 3000MW Ribeirão dam, a binational project between Brazil and Bolivia, is encountering comparable opposition from local residents. Such concerns were formally
Below: Santo Antonio hydroelectric project on the Madeira River in Brazil. Hydropower operations were halted temporarily in 2023 due to low reservoir levels caused by drought. Southern American hydropower has to increase its resilience to climate change © Vinicius Bacarin /
Shutterstock.com
www.waterpowermagazine.com | August 2024 | 27
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