With little fanfare Chalillo generates first watts

Lately B.E.L. has been keeping a low profile on the project, but in a late evening press release, the company announced that on Monday the Chalillo Hydroelectric Facility generated the first of what it hopes will be many billions of watts of power. According to the release, testing of the turbine will continue through the end of October. As these recent photos indicate, the large lake created behind the dam is nearly at full height and reports from those familiar with the area indicate the transformation of the scenery is astonishing. B.E.L. says the completion of Chalillo will double Belize’s hydro-generated energy from eighty gigawatt hours annually to one hundred and sixty. News Five understands that the formal application process to build a third generating plant at Vaca Falls will begin shortly.