{"id":50049479,"date":"2021-12-16T18:19:41","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T18:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.dialogochino.net\/?p=49479"},"modified":"2023-04-03T18:21:41","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T17:21:41","slug":"49479-ecuador-controversial-hydropower-project-energy-rethink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/energy\/49479-ecuador-controversial-hydropower-project-energy-rethink\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecuador\u2019s controversial and costliest hydropower project prompts energy rethink"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the beginning, it generated more doubt than certainty. And to this day, it has never generated its total installed power capacity. The Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant cost more than US$3.2 billion<\/a>, making it the most expensive infrastructure project in Ecuador\u2019s history. Yet, its many flaws are turning it into a white elephant in the middle of the Amazon and prompting national energy planners into a rethink.<\/p>\n

Israeli, Iranian and Brazilian companies were among those to bid for the mega-project. But it was China\u2019s Sinohydro that won, backed by a US$1.7 billion loan<\/a> from The Export-Import (Exim) Bank of China that, like most loans, came with certain conditions. In this case, they included contracting a Chinese company to execute the project.<\/p>\n

Construction of Coca Codo Sinclair began in 2006 and was presented as a symbol of a hydropower revolution in Ecuador\u2019s energy sector, under the government of former president Rafael Correa (2007\u20132017).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work will be the engine of new companies, of entrepreneurship, of research, of industrialisation, of the Ecuador of the future. From here, the energy to make the leap to development will come,\u201d Jorge Glas, former vice-president of Ecuador, told an audience that included China\u2019s president Xi Jinping at the November 2016 inauguration of the plant.<\/p>\n

However, the plant has been undergoing repairs ever since. Recently, the situation has deteriorated drastically with the erosion of the Coca river<\/a> \u2013 its lifeblood. What went wrong?<\/p>\n

Ignoring the studies<\/h2>\n

In 1992, Ecuador spent US$20 million<\/a> on two feasibility studies for Coca Codo. Both confirmed the feasibility and necessity of its construction. However, their adequacy has been called into question. \u201cTo date, the power plant still lacks vulnerability and risk studies,\u201d said Luis Torres, a geologist and advisor based in Quito.<\/p>\n

The plant was originally conceived as a two-stage project with an output of 859 megawatts (MW). Some 18 years after the original studies were first commissioned, former president Correa initiated construction. The then Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energies, Alecksey Mosquera, indicated that it would be executed in a single stage, with an installed capacity of 1,500 MW \u2013 almost double the recommended amount. The National Electricity Council (Conelec) justified this by arguing that the studies were not recent, but they allowed for an increase in capacity<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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