The board of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a US$750M loan for Venezuelan state power company Edelca's US$3B Tocoma hydroelectric project.
IDB’s board is expected to approve the disbursements of the loan by the end of this year providing Edelca meets certain environmental requirements, and disbursements could begin in 2006.
Tocoma is located in Bolivar state in southern Venezuela, a region where the confluence of several of Latin America’s largest rivers makes it relatively easy to generate vast amounts of hydro power. Nearly 5% of the 2100MW facility has already been built. When complete it will generate 12,000GWh a year.