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Rio Lindo

Hydro power plant in Cortes, Honduras. Approximate location 15.0404, -87.982.

HydroCortesHondurasconventional storage

Rio Lindo is a 109 MW hydro power station in Cortes, Honduras. It is operated by Empresa Nacional De Energia Electrica. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 109k homes (estimated). It ranks #7 of 47 Honduras power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1971, it is around 55 years old — an older, legacy facility. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 30.4% of Honduras's electricity; the national grid averages 322 gCO₂/kWh (55.4% low-carbon) (2024).

109Source-backed capacity
109,124homes powered (est.)
1971commissioned (~55 yrs)

Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1029355.

Data status

Known data

FacilityRio Lindo WRI
CountryHonduras · Cortes WRI
Coordinates15.0404, -87.982 WRI
FuelHydro WRI
MW installed capacity109 MW WRI source record; scope not independently normalised
OwnerEmpresa Nacional De Energia Electrica WRI
Commissioned1971 WRI
Technologyconventional storage WRI

Calculated from dataset

Capacity rank in country#7 of 47 calculated
Fuel-specific rank in country#2 of 12 calculated
Capacity vs country/fuel peers8.52× · 13 MW median · 12 peers calculated
Homes-powered equivalent109,124 calculated
Climate23.1°C · HDD 0 derived from coordinates
Environmental severityC4 · 39/100 derived from coordinates

Not available

GWh reported / yrNot available not in dataset
CO₂ emissionsnot applicable not applicable

Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.

Capacity provenance

The public capacity above is the current source-record value. A 2026 tracker candidate lists 109 MW for Río Lindo hydroelectric plant, but it is not used as the public primary value until scope is verified (unit vs operating vs installed/project total).

Capacity claim grade: B_SCOPE_PARENT_COMPLEX - recommended action: build_parent_complex_model - confidence: not_comparable_without_scope. This follows a claim-based data model: value + scope + source + confidence, rather than silently overwriting records.

Data provenance

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 L100000601794); fuel: WRI source-record fuel

In context: how this plant compares

At 109 MW, Rio Lindo is well above the median hydro plant in Honduras (13 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.

Capacity vs largest hydro plants in Honduras

Fransisco Morazan (el Cajon): 300 MW300Fransisco …Rio Lindo: 109 MW109Rio LindoNacaome: 30 MW30NacaomeCanaveral: 29 MW29CanaveralEl Nispero: 22 MW22El NisperoCuyamapa: 13 MW13CuyamapaLa Esperanza: 13 MW13La Esperan…Cuyamel: 8 MW8Cuyamel

Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).

Owner

Operated by Empresa Nacional De Energia Electrica. All plants by this company →

Local climate & thermal context

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 15.0°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.

23.1°Cannual mean temp
0heating degree-days (base 18°C)
1,867cooling degree-days (base 18°C)
704 melevation

Monthly mean temperature

J: 22 °CJF: 22 °CFM: 23 °CMA: 24 °CAM: 25 °CMJ: 24 °CJJ: 24 °CJA: 24 °CAS: 24 °CSO: 23 °CON: 22 °CND: 21 °CD25 °C

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.

Site climate & environmental severity

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.

C4ISO 9223 corrosivity (indicative)
39/100environmental-severity index
3.6°Cseasonal temperature swing
90 kmdistance to coast

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.

How it compares & nearby plants

The #2 largest hydro power plant of 12 in Honduras by capacity.

Honduras has 12 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 544 MW of capacity.

Nearby power plants

Location

Coordinates 15.0404, -87.982 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.

Frequently asked questions

What type of power plant is Rio Lindo?

Rio Lindo is a 109 MW source-record hydro power plant in Cortes, Honduras, commissioned in 1971.

How many homes can Rio Lindo power?

Its output is enough to supply roughly 109,124 homes (estimated).

Who operates Rio Lindo?

Rio Lindo is operated by Empresa Nacional De Energia Electrica.

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