Brazil hydro upgrades power green partnership
As the global transition toward sustainable development accelerates, clean energy cooperation between China and Latin America is proving to hold boundless potential, as Chinese technological innovation revitalizes critical legacy assets amid the region's ambitious push for grid modernization. "China has advanced technology and rich experience, while Brazil boasts abundant natural resources and immense market demand," said Ye Xiaoning, a senior engineer at the State Grid Energy Research Institute.
"This complementarity is the very key to our successful cooperation," he added.
Ye noted that the mutually beneficial partnership perfectly demonstrates how developing nations can join hands to comprehensively develop and utilize clean energy on a massive scale. This year marks a historic milestone: the 10th anniversary of the Ilha Solteira and Jupia hydroelectric power plants under Chinese stewardship. On July 1, 2016, CTG Brasil, a unit of China Three Gorges Corporation, the world's biggest dam builder and operator, officially took over operations of the two massive stations.
Over the past decade, these two hydroelectric heavyweights spanning southeastern Brazil have undergone a profound metamorphosis. Once aging plants plagued by equipment deterioration and frequent unplanned outages, they have been completely transformed into a shining benchmark of Sino-Brazilian hydropower integration and now serve as the vital energy backbone for Brazil's prosperous southeastern economic corridor, said the company.
Boasting an installed capacity of 1.55 million kilowatts, the Jupia Hydropower Station generated an estimated 6.77 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2025 alone. The Ilha Solteira Hydropower Station, on the other hand, is currently Brazil's sixth-largest hydroelectric facility and features 20 generation units and a total capacity of 3.44 million kW. Combined, these facilities offer nearly 5 million kW of capacity. Every year, the two stations transmit a massive amount of clean hydropower to the Brazilian grid, meeting the electricity needs of over 6 million people.
CTG acquired the 30-year concession rights for the projects between 2015 and 2016 in a landmark $3.7 billion transaction, which remains the company's largest overseas acquisition to date and firmly established CTG as Brazil's third-largest non-state power generator.
Rather than merely operating the existing infrastructure, CTG initiated a monumental "heart transplant" for the aging facilities.
Since the major hydropower technical renovation was officially launched in 2017, CTG Brasil has completed the technological upgrading of 12 generating units in two batches across both stations.
This mammoth overhaul has brought a fundamental change to the operational conditions of both plants. Coupled with a continuously consolidated safety culture, the operational reliability of the units has been significantly increased.
In 2024, the comprehensive availability rate of CTG Brasil's power stations reached an impressive 95.6 percent. Furthermore, a new centralized control center in Ilha Solteira, which became fully operational in 2022, has fundamentally eliminated historical safety hazards within the backbone power grid, ensuring the continuous, highly efficient delivery of clean power, it said.
Li Yinsheng, chairman of CTG International, noted that while Brazil offers a highly professional workforce and a competitive market, foreign investors must carefully navigate stringent labor regulations, infrastructure shortfalls and complex tax frameworks.
In response, CTG has pioneered a deeply localized management model that fully empowers local Brazilian professionals. According to Ye, China and Brazil, as two of the world's leading hydropower nations, share a profound mutual understanding of large-scale energy infrastructure.
zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn
