Jose Maria Romay, general manager of Corani (a subsidiary of Ende), has announced the company is seeking financing from Latin American development bank CAF and French development agency AFD for the 147-MW Banda Azul hydro project.
CAF helped finance Ende’s 69-MW San Jose II hydroelectric power plant, which was inaugurated earlier this month. And AFD is supporting the Oruro solar park and the La Ventolera and Warnes II wind farms.
BNamericas reports that the project would be located in the Cochabamba department down river from San Jose II and cost US$300 million to develop.
Romay said the final study for Banda Azul has been completed and the plan is to launch bidding early next year, once financing has been secured.
The government highlighted previously that San Jose II increased Bolivia’s installed capacity to 2,300 MW, leading to 1,500 MW in surplus, and that capacity in 2019 is due to reach 3,300 MW, with 1,000 MW from combined cycle operations.
Other hydro facilities under construction in Bolivia include 203-MW Miguillas and 290-MW Ivirizuwzaedwqaceuxwtxcxzx, which are to come online in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
In April 2019, just over 38% of the electricity generated in the country came from hydropower.
