Hydro power plant in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Approximate location 9.2703, -82.5154.
HydroBocas del ToroPanamaconventional storage
Changuinola I Hydroelectric Power Plant Panama is a 221 MW hydro power station in Bocas del Toro, Panama. It is operated by AES Panamá SRL [100%]. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 221k homes (estimated). It ranks #5 of 21 Panama power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2012, it is around 14 years old — relatively modern. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 53.1% of Panama's electricity; the national grid averages 221 gCO₂/kWh (68.0% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id GEODB0043522.
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 operating-unit sum (location L100000603069); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 221 MW, Changuinola I Hydroelectric Power Plant Panama is well above the median hydro plant in Panama (120 MW). Technically it is described as conventional storage. 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.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by AES Panamá SRL [100%].
This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 9.3°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 #3 largest hydro power plant of 8 in Panama by capacity.
Panama has 8 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 1,062 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 9.2703, -82.5154 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Changuinola I Hydroelectric Power Plant Panama is a 221 MW source-record hydro power plant in Bocas del Toro, Panama, commissioned in 2012.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 221,252 homes (estimated).
Changuinola I Hydroelectric Power Plant Panama is operated by AES Panamá SRL [100%].
