Coal power plant in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Approximate location -33.3562, -60.1729.
CoalBuenos AiresArgentinaSteamsubcritical
SAN NICOLAS is a 675 MW coal power station in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is operated by AES ARGENTINA GENERACION S.A.. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 845k homes (estimated). It ranks #20 of 275 Argentina power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1965, it is around 61 years old — an older, legacy facility. In context, coal supplies about 1.8% of Argentina's electricity; the national grid averages 346 gCO₂/kWh (41.6% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id ARG0000002.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The public capacity above is the current source-record value. A 2026 tracker candidate lists 525 MW for San Nicolás power station, 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.
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 operating-unit sum (location L100000100002); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 675 MW, SAN NICOLAS is well above the median coal plant in Argentina (361 MW). Technically it is described as Steam; 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 AES ARGENTINA GENERACION S.A.. All plants by this company →
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 33.4°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 64% 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: 25/100 — 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 #2 largest coal power plant of 10 in Argentina by capacity.
Argentina has 10 coal power plants in this dataset, together about 5,128 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -33.3562, -60.1729 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
SAN NICOLAS is a 675 MW source-record coal power plant in Buenos Aires, Argentina, commissioned in 1965.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 844,714 homes (estimated).
SAN NICOLAS is operated by AES ARGENTINA GENERACION S.A..
