Oil power plant in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Approximate location 22.4351, -98.0081.
OilTamaulipasMexicoCCGT · HRSGCO₂ modelled
Altamira is a 500 MW oil power station in Tamaulipas, Mexico. It is operated by CFE. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 375k homes (estimated). It ranks #66 of 366 Mexico power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1978, it is around 48 years old — long-established. Its modelled annual emissions are 1,964,800 t CO₂/yr (Climate TRACE), equivalent to about 458k cars driven for a year. In context, oil supplies about 9.4% of Mexico's electricity; the national grid averages 474 gCO₂/kWh (25.9% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id MEX0001776.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000408887); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 500 MW, Altamira is well above the median oil plant in Mexico (300 MW). Technically it is described as CCGT; combined-cycle with a heat-recovery steam generator (HRSG). Oil-fired plants burn heavy fuel oil or diesel, usually as peaking or backup capacity on islands and grids without gas pipelines; high fuel cost keeps their utilisation low.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
This facility's annual emissions are roughly equivalent to:
Equivalencies via US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies; modelled emissions from Climate TRACE.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by CFE. All plants by this company →
This oil plant burns oil or diesel to drive turbines or reciprocating engines. It sits in a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 22.4°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
This site has effectively no heating season (tropical/equatorial climate), so winter heat loss is not the driver here. The thermal concern shifts to year-round process heat and humidity/heat-driven corrosion of hot equipment.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in an aggressive, high-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C5 — Very high), with marine salt corrosion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #8 largest oil power plant of 27 in Mexico by capacity.
Mexico has 27 oil power plants in this dataset, together about 12,022 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 22.4351, -98.0081 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Altamira is a 500 MW source-record oil power plant in Tamaulipas, Mexico, commissioned in 1978.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 375,428 homes (estimated).
Altamira is operated by CFE.
Altamira has modelled emissions of about 1,964,800 tonnes of CO₂ per year (Climate TRACE).
