The Coca Codo Sinclair Dam is a hydroelectric dam in Ecuador. It is located on the Coca River in Napo Province, 100 kilometres (62 mi) east of Quito.[1][2] It is the largest energy project in Ecuador.[1] The dam was constructed by Sinohydro Corporation for $2.25 billion.[3]

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish. (February 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 5,105 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Wikipedia article at [[:es:Coca Codo Sinclair]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|es|Coca Codo Sinclair}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Coca Codo Sinclair Dam
Location of Coca Codo Sinclair Dam in Ecuador
Country	Ecuador
Location	El Reventador
Coordinates	0°08′17″S 77°27′11″W
Status	Operational
Construction began	2010
Opening date	2016
Construction cost	US$2.6 billion
Built by	Sinohydro-Andes JV
Dam and spillways
Type of dam	Concrete-face rock-fill
Impounds	Coca River
Height (foundation)	31.8 m (104 ft)
Length	160 m (520 ft)
Commission date	2016
Hydraulic head	620 m (2,030 ft)
Turbines	8 x 187.5 MW Pelton turbines
Installed capacity	1,500 MW (2,000,000 hp)

The plant became fully operational in November 2016.[4] It has a capacity of 1,500 megawatts.[3][5]

Funding of dam

Over the years, China provided $19 billion in the form of loans to Ecuador for the construction of "bridges, highways, irrigation, schools, health clinics and a half dozen dams" as well as the Coca Codo Sinclair dam.[2] According to an article in The New York Times, Ecuador repays its debt to China by providing China with oil "at a discount". By 2018, this meant that China kept 80 percent of oil produced in Ecuador. The loan from China’s Export-Import Bank for the Coca Codo Sinclair Dam amounts to $1.7 billion with an interest rate of 7% interest over 15 years which is $125 million a year in interest alone.[2]

Post construction

As of December 2018, 7,648 large and small cracks were identified in the generator hall, surrounding equipment.[2] The cracks were first discovered in 2014 but the full extent of them is unknown as a thorough assessment would include deconstructing portions of the power plant which is cost prohibitive.[6]

After the dam became operational, its reservoir caused regressive erosion upstream and water absent of sediment released from the dam has caused high rates of erosion downstream which likely led to two oil spills after pipelines along the river lost their footings. Downstream erosion, if left unchecked can undermine the dam and other oil infrastructure by 2022.[7]

References

This article about a civil engineering topic is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

На других языках

[es] Coca Codo Sinclair

[fr] Centrale hydroélectrique Coca Codo Sinclair