LA BARCA 1 is a 52 MW hydro power plant in Canary Islands, Spain. It is operated by HIDROELECTRICA DEL CANTABRICO S.A.. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 52k homes (estimated). It ranks #212 of 899 Spain power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1967, it is around 59 years old — an older, legacy facility. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 11.4% of Spain's electricity; the national grid averages 154 gCO₂/kWh (74.6% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1006575.
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 L100001023230); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 52 MW, LA BARCA 1 is around the median hydro plant in Spain (55 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 HIDROELECTRICA DEL CANTABRICO S.A.. All plants by this company →
This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a hot desert climate (Köppen BWh) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 28.4°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 97% 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: 14/100 — 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 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 #71 largest hydro power plant of 124 in Spain by capacity.
Spain has 124 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 15,680 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 28.3504, -14.1076 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
LA BARCA 1 is a 52 MW source-record hydro power plant in Canary Islands, Spain, commissioned in 1967.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 52,159 homes (estimated).
LA BARCA 1 is operated by HIDROELECTRICA DEL CANTABRICO S.A..
