OREANDA-NEWS. On September 5th, commercial operation of the first 75 MW turbine of the Jirau hydro power project has been officially approved by the Electricity Energy Regulatory Agency (ANEEL). Located on the Madeira River, in the State of Rondonia, the plant will have a total installed capacity of 3,750 MW and, when fully operational, will produce enough clean and renewable energy to meet the electricity demand of 10 million Brazilian households. Full commissioning of all 50 generation units is expected to be reached by 2015.

On May 17th, the United Nations announced the registration of the Jirau project, according to the Clean Development Mechanism (*). On the same date, GDF SUEZ published the official sustainability report developed by independent auditors based on the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol (**).

With the start of commercial operations, the generated electricity will effectively reduce the necessity of thermal generation and thus reduce increasing volumes of GHG emissions. Once completed, national GHG emissions will be reduced by 6 million tons per year.