Coal power plant in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Approximate location -29.9513, -51.6224.
CoalRio Grande do SulBrazilsubcritical
Charqueadas power station is a 72 MW coal power plant in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It is operated by Engie Brasil Energia SA. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 90k homes (estimated). It ranks #392 of 2,572 Brazil power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1962, it is around 64 years old — an older, legacy facility. 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 CT-5623.
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 wiki unit-level table, historical/all-units fallback when no operating units, fetched 2026-07-05; fuel: Climate TRACE source-record fuel
At 72 MW, Charqueadas power station is below 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 Engie Brasil Energia SA.
This coal plant burns coal to raise high-pressure steam that spins a turbine-generator. It sits in a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 30.0°S — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 86% below the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 18/100 — this site sits in the bottom third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
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 #21 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 -29.9513, -51.6224 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Charqueadas power station is a 72 MW source-record coal power plant in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, commissioned in 1962.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 90,102 homes (estimated).
Charqueadas power station is operated by Engie Brasil Energia SA.
