Coal power plant in Pará, Brazil. Approximate location -1.505833, -48.625833.
CoalParáBrazilsubcritical
Barcarena Vale power station is a 600 MW coal power station in Pará, Brazil. It is operated by Vale SA [100%]. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 751k homes (estimated). It ranks #86 of 2,572 Brazil power plants by installed capacity. In context, coal supplies about 2.3% of Brazil's electricity; the national grid averages 110 gCO₂/kWh (88.7% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id GEM_coa_barcarenavale_brazi.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and fuel fields on this page are source-record values from the upstream open dataset. They are useful for identification and ranking, but they have not been upgraded to a 2026 registry/GEM-location verified value.
capacity: GEM GCPT; fuel: GEM GCPT
At 600 MW, Barcarena Vale power station is well above the median coal plant in Brazil (262 MW). Technically it is described as subcritical. Coal plants burn pulverised coal to raise high-pressure steam for a turbine; they run as baseload but are the most carbon-intensive mainstream source and the first targeted for retirement or efficiency retrofits.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Vale SA [100%].
This coal plant burns coal to raise high-pressure steam that spins a turbine-generator. It sits in a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 1.5°S — 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 a corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C4 — High), with humidity / wetness 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 #5 largest coal power plant of 30 in Brazil by capacity.
Brazil has 30 coal power plants in this dataset, together about 9,486 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -1.505833, -48.625833 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Barcarena Vale power station is a 600 MW coal power plant in Pará, Brazil.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 750,857 homes (estimated).
Barcarena Vale power station is operated by Vale SA [100%].
