Hydro power plant in Northern Province, Sierra Leone. Approximate location 9.0713, -11.7229.
HydroNorthern ProvinceSierra Leonerun-of-riverPre Construction
Bumbuna Dam is a 50 MW hydro power plant in Northern Province, Sierra Leone. It is operated by Government of Sierra Leone. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 50k homes (estimated). It ranks #2 of 3 Sierra Leone power plants by installed capacity. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 85.7% of Sierra Leone's electricity; the national grid averages 48 gCO₂/kWh (95.2% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1023165.
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 · 2026 · L100001023207; fuel: WRI GPPD
Technically it is described as run-of-river. Its current lifecycle status is “Pre Construction” — so it is not yet, or no longer, generating at full output. Hydropower converts the energy of falling or flowing water into electricity; output depends on rainfall and reservoir level, and large dams also provide grid balancing and storage.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Operated by Government of Sierra Leone.
This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen Am) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 9.1°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 a moderately corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C3 — Medium), 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.
Sierra Leone has 1 hydro power plant in this dataset, together about 50 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 9.0713, -11.7229 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Bumbuna Dam is a 50 MW hydro power plant in Northern Province, Sierra Leone, Pre Construction 2009.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 50,057 homes (estimated).
Bumbuna Dam is operated by Government of Sierra Leone.
