Hydroelectric Energy in the Peruvian Amazon: The Inambari Puzzle

Lila Barrera-Hernández
AQ Web Exclusive
December 17, 2009

Peru’s appetite for investment has again led it deep into the Amazon jungle. This time a new hydroelectricity project, the Inambari Dam, is poised to bring irreversible social and environmental changes to the region.

Inambari, to be developed in the buffer zone of the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park, will be the largest hydroelectricity project in Peru and the fifth largest in Latin America. It was conceived as one of six potential projects to be developed as a result of a 2008 cooperation agreement with Brazil. Once built, the $4 billion project will have an installed capacity of 2,000 megawatts of electricity. But it will also flood over 400 square kilometers (around 150 square miles) of land, including a portion of the new Inter-Oceanic Highway, and displace over 3,200 locals.

Although the Inambari Dam could supply about half of Peru’s energy consumption, reports are that Inambari will be almost completely devoted to exporting power to Brazil for at least the first few years. Under the 2008 Peru-Brazil energy cooperation agreement, both countries agreed to look into possible avenues for integration and to assess whether future hydroelectricity projects could export power from Peru to Brazil...

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