Energy China in Latin America
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E-mail China Today, September 8, 2015
China has built the world's largest hydropower facility, the Three Gorges Hydroelectric Power Station. Now, the country's hydropower enterprises, with their advanced technologies and rich construction experience, are flexing their muscles internationally. Their reach encompasses Latin America, where they're helping local firms generate clean energy.
The China Energy Engineering Group, better known as Energy China, is the bellwether of China's hydropower-engineering exports to Latin America. The group sealed a deal with Argentina last year to construct the country's two largest hydropower stations, the largest hydropower-engineering project a Chinese company has ever contracted overseas.
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Energy China's Chinese and Ecuadorian employees pose for a group photo after a basketball match. |
Prioritizing Latin American Market
In 2010, Energy China entered the Latin American market by undertaking a flood-control project in Ecuador, which would benefit some 100,000 people. The system, which was formally put into operation in April, has helped prevent catastrophic floods in the lower basin of the Guayas River, the most serious in the past half-century.
"The Ecuadorian government and people have spoken highly of our construction project and praised the Chinese people's diligence, honesty, dependability, and sense of responsibility, as well as our efficiency and excellent techniques," said Zhang Jianxin, quality control director of China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC) under Energy China, who was responsible for the project.
What came next was CGGC's work on Ecuador's second largest hydropower project, the Sopladora Hydropower Station, which would have an installed capacity of 4.87 gigawatts. Construction broke ground in April 2011, and the power station is expected to start operating at the end of this year.
Energy China also has a presence in Columbia, Chile and Peru, where it has set up eight branches and signed at least 20 engineering projects worth US $8 billion. These projects involve not only hydropower but water conservation, agricultural development, as well as power transmission and transformation.
Of course, the largest hydropower projects that Chinese companies have ever contracted in the region are Argentina's Nestor Kirchner Hydropower Station (114 gigawatts) and Jorge Saipan Nick Hydropower Station (60 gigawatts), with a total value of US $4.6 billion. It will be built by CGGC in collaboration with Argentina's Electroingenieria (Eling).
In Venezuela, meanwhile, Energy China took on in 2009 a comprehensive agricultural project, the Apure Shipping System. The system, which was put into operation in 2012, has solved the problem of flooding in the State of Apure and benefited local agricultural and fishery production.
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