Biggest Chinese-built overseas hydropower station put into use in Ecuador, can supply 1/3 of population

The Ecuadoran Vice President, Jorge David Glas (C), poses with employees in one of the tunnels of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric project, in El Chaco, Napo province, Ecuador, April 7, 2015.

The Chinese-built Coca Codo Sinclair hydropower station has been officially put into use in Ecuador on April 13, 2016. Located in the canton of Quijos in the Amazon Basin, some 100 km east of the capital of Quito, the biggest energy project Coca Codo by China's Sinohydro will have a capacity of 1,500 megawatts and meet 30 percent of the nation's electric energy needs. It is the biggest hydropower station Chinese companies have ever built overseas.

Employees work in one of the tunnels of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric project, in El Chaco, Napo province, Ecuador, April 7, 2015. The Chinese Sinohydro Corporation completed on Tuesday the stage of conduction of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric project, the biggest hydroelectric power station in the Amazon of Ecuador.

Beset by power shortage and frequent outages for years, Ecuador is now poised to become a clean energy supplier thanks to hydroelectric power plants. The project also provides over 10,000 jobs locally, according to Ecuador’s vice president Jorge Glas.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa pointed out in a recent televised interview the environmental and economic disadvantages of his country's old energy infrastructure.

Before having hydroelectric plants, the country had to burn imported fuels to generate electricity, he said.

Employees work in one of the tunnels of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric project, in El Chaco, Napo province, Ecuador, April 7, 2015.

Changes are now expected as Chinese companies are working on six of Ecuador's eight planned hydroelectric plants. The plants are designed to help the government reach its goal of transforming the country's energy sector so that hydropower could make up 90 percent of its national output.