Development History of The La Esperanza Project

This small hydro project takes its name from the local city of La Esperanza.  La Esperanza is the capital of the Department of Intibuca with a city population of approximately 8,000 and a surrounding community population of over 50,000.  The area is located in the mountainous region of the southern central portion of Honduras and boasts beautiful pine forests.  The economy of the area is non industrial and relies almost entirely on small private farms growing potatoes, various vegetables, strawberries and corn. 

The project uses the river named “Rio Intibuca” to generate power. Sadly, this river is extremely polluted as there are few proper septic practices in the area.  The untreated sewage from the town forms the water source for the river in the dry season, during the rainy season the runoff from the rainfall in the 97 square kilometer basin becomes the main source of water. 

The Project was developed by a Honduran company “Consorcio de Inversiones SA de CV ( CISA)” .  In 1999 the permission to complete the technical study was granted and construction started three years later in 2002 after all the permits were obtained.  The first phase of the project known as Phase 1A, was constructed over an abandoned hydro project.  Phase 1A consisted of repairing the existing dam, installing 185 m of penstock and building a new powerhouse containing a 500 kw crossflow turbine where the old powerhouse had once existed.  The reservoir capacity is 350,000 cubic meters, flow design is 4 cubic meters per second maximum with a total gross head of 17.5 meters.

Phase 1A began generating energy and selling to the local utility “ENEE” in June 2003 also producing the very first CER’s in the world.

One year after the completion of phase 1A the second phase, “1B”, was  put into operation.  This phase consisted of a small intake 600 meters downstream of phase 1A powerhouse, 385 meters of steel penstock, rolled in Tegucigalpa and welded on site, and a powerhouse containing a 1MW crossflow turbine. This turbine is rated at 4 cubic meters per second and 32 meters head.

Phase 2 of the project was completed in early 2006. After commissioning and testing CISA obtained the overall project commercial operating license in October 6th.  The reservoir for Phase 2 has 260,000 cubic meters of storage.  The penstock is 5000 meters in total length with all but the last 400 meters being built using a GRP pipe designed and manufactured in Medellin Columbia by Flowtite Andercol S.A.  The powerhouse for Phase 2 utilizes two pelton turbines, both with a 6.15 MW capacity.  These pelton turbines we specifically designed and manufactured for this installation by Canyon Industries Inc. out of Deming Washington USA. 

To learn more about social and environmental projects CISA has undertaken click here.