Cimarron Hydroelectric Power Project a

hydroelectric power plant Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

, that was to start construction in 2010. The plant would have been be located in the upper basin of the

Lempa River The Lempa River ( es, Río Lempa) is a river in Central America. Geography Its sources are located in between the Sierra Madre and the Sierra del Merendón in southern Guatemala, near the town of Olopa. In Guatemala the river is called ''Río O ...

, upstream of the Cerrón Grande Hydroelectric Dam. The proposed location of the dam was between the town of Agua Caliente on the left shore and Metapán, Santa Ana, on the right shore. A tunnel would divert water from the

to a powerhouse and substation to be built near Agua Caliente. With an estimated capacity of 261 megawatts, the project would have increased El Salvador's total generation capacity by almost 25%. The project was abandoned in 2009 by President

Mauricio Funes Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena (born 18 October 1959) is a Salvadoran politician and former journalist who served as President of El Salvador from 2009 to 2014. Funes won the 2009 Salvadoran presidential election, 2009 presidential election as ...

, but has been considered again since 2016.

Main features

The dam would be built at 695 meters

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

and would have had a height of 165 m and a length of 660 m. The dam reservoir would have covered an area of 15.3 km² and a capacity of 592 million m³. The main stream tunnel was to conduct a total flow of 83.1 cubic meters per second from the dam to the plant; Four vertical axis

Pelton turbine The Pelton wheel or Pelton Turbine is an impulse-type water turbine invented by American inventor Lester Allan Pelton in the 1870s. The Pelton wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to water's dead weight like the trad ...

s, with an installed capacity of 261 megawatt, would generate a yearly average of 686.7GWh. A 235 kV power line will connect the

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many pow ...

to the national grid.

Environmental impact studies A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

, initiated in 2005 and concluded in 2007, identified mitigation measures. One hundred and fifty families would have been relocated from their current homes. Waters of the Lempa River would have been diverted towards the Metayate River by way of a 1,200 meters discharge channel. The natural flow of the Lempa River would therefore be altered for a total length of 30 kilometers. In El Salvador, the evolution of current oil prices made the Cimarrón Project more attractive than fossil thermal plants, which could provide comparable output. The estimated

rate of return In finance, return is a profit on an investment. It comprises any change in value of the investment, and/or cash flows (or securities, or other investments) which the investor receives from that investment, such as interest payments, coupons, ca ...

(ERR) of the Cimarrón is 12.23%.

Environmental concerns

Opponents of the project pointed to various drawbacks of the proposed project, but the issue at hand was the consequences that the dam would have had on the water flow of the Lempa River. The river already has four hydroelectric dams and represents some of the scarce

water resources Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; slight ...

of the country. The Lempa River is the only river that can be of practical use for dams of significant electrical output in El Salvador. The Latinamerican Water Tribunal summarizes an ongoing complaint: “''The Fundacion Rio Lempa along with the Comite Ambiental de Chalatenango, filed a complaint against the imminent construction and operation of "El Cimarron" Hydroelectric Power Project on the Lempa River, located in the

Chalatenango Department Chalatenango () is a department of El Salvador, located in the northwest of the country. The capital is the city of Chalatenango. The Chalatenango Department encompasses 2,017 km² and contains more than 204,000 inhabitants. ''Las Matras A ...

. The opposing parties claim that such project poses a serious environmental and health threat for thousands of inhabitants, with further negative repercussions on the already deteriorated Lempa river basin.''” On the other hand, in 2000, the Central American Water Tribunal resolved to ask the Salvadoran government to stop construction of the project, and to request

the World Bank The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Grou ...

to stop financing it. A study by the

National University of Costa Rica The National University of Costa Rica (in Spanish, Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, abbreviated UNA) is one of five public universities in the Republic of Costa Rica, in Central America. The main campus is located in the city of Heredia. Acc ...

presents an accurate view on the extreme dependence that El Salvador has on the Lempa River, and therefore the tremendous impact that this project will exert on this vital resource. Forty eight percent of El Salvador's population lives in cities, towns and villages (including the capital city) in the Lempa River basin, which covers 49% of the Salvadoran territory. Paradoxically, the economic aspect of the project which appeared to be its driving force used by government agencies to gain support in the eyes of international lenders, may have become its most detrimental side after all. As a result of ever increasing prices of materials, due to the 2008 world recession, the initial building costs which were estimated at 400 million dollars have tripled to 1,100 million dollars. This amount in itself represents at least 1/20 of the

Nominal GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is often ...

of the country which is 22,115 billion dollars.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Comisión Ejecutiva Hidroeléctrica del Río Lempa (CEL)

Hydroelectric power stations in El Salvador Proposed hydroelectric power stations Metapán

Main features

Environmental concerns

See also

References

External links