Hydro power plant in Biobio, Chile. Approximate location -37.3603, -71.8657.
HydroBiobioChilerun-of-river
RUCUE is a 178 MW hydro power station in Biobio, Chile. It is operated by COLBUN S.A.. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 178k homes (estimated). It ranks #47 of 336 Chile power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1998, it is around 28 years old — long-established. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 22.2% of Chile's electricity; the national grid averages 289 gCO₂/kWh (66.4% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id CHL0001116.
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 L100000600575); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 178 MW, RUCUE is well above the median hydro plant in Chile (12 MW). Technically it is described as run-of-river. 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 COLBUN 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 warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 37.4°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 20% above 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: 61/100 — this site sits in the mid 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 #10 largest hydro power plant of 99 in Chile by capacity.
Chile has 99 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 6,416 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -37.3603, -71.8657 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
RUCUE is a 178 MW source-record hydro power plant in Biobio, Chile, commissioned in 1998.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 178,203 homes (estimated).
RUCUE is operated by COLBUN S.A..
