The project has been built on the river Tocantins, on the border of the states of Tocantins and Goias.
Last month the Brazilian national environmental regulator, Ibama, issued its approval for the 241MW plant to be operated. The plant is due to be operational from 2011. Ibama said the licence to begin operations was valid for four years.
Suez was awarded the concession for the project in 2001, well before its merger with GDF. The company is investing Euro307M (US$390M) in the project and said that the plant’s guaranteed power of 148.5MW has been sold by auction for Euro2B (US$2.5B), for 30 years starting from 2011.
Elsewhere in the country the company is leading a joint venture that has the concession to build the 3300MW Jirau hydro power plant on the Madeira river, in the state of Rondonia. The project is part of the 6450MW Madeira scheme. The JV won the 35-year concession in May and operations are to commence from 2013.
