In a press release the IDB said this renewable energy project is largest in Central America.
Construction of the 305.5 MW hydroelectric plant in the province of Limón, in eastern Costa Rica.
Among the projects planned in the agreement include the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the plant and its facilities, including transmission lines, substations and access roads.
The plant will use river flow to generate an annual average of 1,407 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity, and it is expected that, once completed, the plant provides about 10 percent of the total capacity of installed electricity generation in Costa Rica.
The project will be the first to be established in Central America for habitat compensation, which is expected to play on other projects in the region.
Also contribute to the Jaguar Corridor initiative and the long-term preservation of the largest living cat in the Americas.
“This project will help Costa Rica meet growing electricity demand and will also contribute to achieving the country’s objectives in terms of reducing carbon emissions,” said Jean-Marc Aboussouan, who heads the infrastructure financing private sector projects in the Finance Department of the IDB Structured and Corporate.
Aboussouan also stressed that “the enforcement of environmental and social elements of this project will provide an important model for other hydroelectric projects in Latin America.”
The project, sponsored by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), includes the construction of a dam 130 meters high, the filling of a reservoir of 6.9 square kilometers and a diversion of the river, 4.2 miles , between the dam and the power plant.
Is expected to be operational in August 2016.
The IDB loan has a maturity period of twenty years, will be complemented by a consortium of credit of approximately $ 450 million and financed by other institutions in the amount of $ 294 million.
EFE
The Costa Rica News (TCRN)
San José Costa Rica
