Song Loulou is a 396 MW hydro power station in Littoral, Cameroon. It is operated by Eneo employees [5%]; State of Cameroon [5%]; unknown [39%]; Actis Group [51%]. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 396k homes (estimated). It ranks #1 of 12 Cameroon power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1981, it is around 45 years old — long-established. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 72.0% of Cameroon's electricity; the national grid averages 226 gCO₂/kWh (73.1% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1023036.
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 L100000600393); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
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 Eneo employees [5%]; State of Cameroon [5%]; unknown [39%]; Actis Group [51%].
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 4.1°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
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.
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.
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 #1 largest hydro power plant of 3 in Cameroon by capacity.
Cameroon has 3 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 622 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 4.078, 10.4649 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Song Loulou is a 396 MW source-record hydro power plant in Littoral, Cameroon, commissioned in 1981.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 396,452 homes (estimated).
Song Loulou is operated by Eneo employees [5%]; State of Cameroon [5%]; unknown [39%]; Actis Group [51%].
