Coal power plant in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Approximate location -31.4506, -53.7769.
CoalRio Grande do SulBrazilsubcriticalCO₂ modelled
Pampa Sul power station is a 345 MW coal power station in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It is operated by Usina Termelétrica Pampa Sul SA. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 432k homes (estimated). It ranks #137 of 2,572 Brazil power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2019, it is around 7 years old — recently built. Its modelled annual emissions are 2,545,550 t CO₂/yr (Climate TRACE), equivalent to about 593k cars driven for a year. 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-5506.
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 L100000100128); fuel: Climate TRACE source-record fuel
At 345 MW, Pampa Sul 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.
This facility's annual emissions are roughly equivalent to:
Equivalencies via US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies; modelled emissions from Climate TRACE.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Usina Termelétrica Pampa Sul 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 31.5°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 77% 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: 21/100 — 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 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.
The #13 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 -31.4506, -53.7769 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Pampa Sul power station is a 345 MW source-record coal power plant in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, commissioned in 2019.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 431,742 homes (estimated).
Pampa Sul power station is operated by Usina Termelétrica Pampa Sul SA.
Pampa Sul power station has modelled emissions of about 2,545,550 tonnes of CO₂ per year (Climate TRACE).
