MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil, Peru plan to build five hydroelectric dams in the Amazon

Minister Lobao said Brazil needs to boost power capacity by 50% in ten years

Brazil expects to reach an accord with Peru by March on a 5 billion US dollars power project to secure energy supplies for both countries, according to Energy minister Edison Lobao. The two governments plan to build five hydroelectric plants in Peru that will produce 6,000 megawatts of electricity

The surplus power will be supplied to Brazil that needs to boost its generating capacity by 50% percent in 10 years, according to minister Lobao.

“Installing the first 2,000 megawatts will cost around 5 billion USD” Lobao said in an interview in Lima. “The long- distance transmission of energy to Brazil is a very costly operation.”

Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras, Latinamerica’s largest utility, will help build the five plants in the foothills of the Peruvian Andes as Brazil seeks increased electricity output to spur faster economic growth. Peru could harness the “enormous” power of its rivers to produce 90,000 megawatts of electricity annually for export to Brazil and other countries in the region, according to Peruvian President Alan García.

“Peru loses in a year as much hydroelectric energy as Brazil consumes annually,” Garcia said last week during a meeting with Brazilian President Lula da Silva. “This is a clean, renewable and infinite source of energy.”

The new plants will supply electricity to cities in Brazil’s Amazon jungle such as Rio Branco through a proposed 1,500- kilometre transmission line, Lobao said. Peru will also supply electricity to other parts of Brazil through 4,000 kilometres of transmission lines, he said.

Eletrobras SA, as Brazil’s state-owned utility is known, plans to complete a feasibility study on a first plant this month. The 2,000 megawatt Inambari project in Peru’s southern Amazon jungle would take Eletrobras and partners Furnas Centrais Eletricas SA and Construtora OAS Ltda five years to build. Studies on the other four hydroelectric plants are expected to be completed in December 2010.

Eletrobras will contribute 2 billion USD for a 49% stake in Inambari.