Portuguese 
Bom Jesus Resident to Witness Transformation of 1.8-Megawatt Plant into 11.75 Megawatts on Chapecozinho River in a $60 Million Project, Multiplying Generation by 6.5 Times, Set for Completion by December 2030
The investment was announced on September 4 by Âmbar Energia, the generation arm of the J&F group.
The target is the Salto do Passo Velho Small Hydropower Plant (PCH), located on the Chapecozinho River in western Santa Catarina.
The project involves modernization and capacity upgrade, rather than new construction.
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This distinction is crucial for understanding the investment, as it affects costs, licensing, and timelines.
From 1.8 to 11.75 Megawatts is Essentially a New Plant
The jump in installed capacity is the central detail of the announcement.
The power will increase from 1.8 MW to 11.75 MW, an increase of 6.5 times over the current generation, according to the company.
Practically speaking, a plant of this size becomes a relevant asset in the regional system instead of remaining marginal.
A 1.8 MW plant serves just a handful of properties and a small industry. With 11.75 MW, it can meet the energy needs of an entire municipality like Bom Jesus.
Why Repowering is Cheaper than Building from Scratch
Here is the economic logic that justifies the investment.
The dam already exists, the reservoir is formed, the environmental license has been obtained, and the connection to the grid is in place. What will be replaced is the equipment: turbine, generator, sluice, and control system.
Therefore, repowering usually delivers new megawatts at a lower unit cost than a greenfield project, along with a much shorter licensing path.
It provides new energy without flooding new areas.
That’s why repowering has become a recurring topic in the Brazilian electric sector. There is an old fleet of small plants installed for decades, operating with outdated equipment, significantly below what the same watercourse can handle.
The Deadline of December 2030 is an Unsettling Detail
The completion of the works is expected for December 2030.
This represents more than four years from the announcement to completion, in a project that does not involve mass expropriation or large-scale civil works.
Such timelines usually reflect the manufacturing backlog for equipment and the hydrological window: works in riverbeds depend on periods of low flow to proceed safely.
Tailored turbines and generators don’t come off the shelf. These are specialized orders with years of waiting, and western Santa Catarina has a rainfall regime that can close work windows for months at a stretch.
Western Santa Catarina is a Corridor of Small Hydropower Plants
The region where the plant is located hosts dozens of small plants taking advantage of the elevation of rivers descending from the plateau.
The Chapecozinho is a tributary of the Chapecó River, in a basin that has already sustained small-scale distributed generation for decades, often adjacent to rural properties and agro-industry.
It’s a type of generation that doesn’t make national headlines, yet it supports the local grid with reliability that solar and wind alone cannot provide.
The small hydropower plant generates at night, produces with cloudy skies, and functions without wind. However, it relies on rainfall, which is where the diversification of the energy matrix shifts from rhetoric to reality.
Âmbar Is Expanding Its Presence in the Electric Sector
This investment is not isolated. The generation arm of the J&F group has been increasing its presence across multiple fronts simultaneously.
The company has made moves into thermal power plants, invested in Eletronuclear, and taken over distribution operations in the North, putting it in competition for the title of the largest private generator in the country.
In this context, R$ 60 million (about US$10.8 million) for a small hydropower plant is a small investment, almost a fine-tuning of the portfolio.
For comparison, the same company announced R$ 5.5 billion (about US$990 million) by 2031 for the electric network in Amazonas, nearly one hundred times the value of this project.
What the Announcement Does Not Detail
There is no information on how many jobs this project will create, nor how many will remain for operations after it is completed.
It was also not disclosed whether the additional energy will be allocated to the free market or the regulated market, as this significantly affects the expected return on investment.
The intermediate timeline, with milestones up to 2030, was similarly absent from the sources consulted.
What Changes for Local Residents
In the short term, construction activity means truck movement, temporary hiring, and some access interference to the power plant area.
In the long term, the municipality will host a larger asset, which typically reflects in revenue and financial compensation for the use of water resources.
Those who already live near small hydropower plants know that the local impact is subtle, and it is precisely this discretion that makes such projects less contentious than large hydropower plants.
For the electric system, the gain is modest in absolute numbers but significant in quality. Nearly ten megawatts more are already connected, without requiring new transmission lines or a connection study from scratch.
In a matrix that has been incorporating a lot of intermittent generation, this kind of firm, predictable reinforcement, close to consumption, is precisely what the national operator often requests.
The announcement of the investment and the capacity figures are available in the publication by Times Brasil, with additional details on the MegaWhat portal.
What do you think: does repowering an old plant solve more than building a new hydropower plant in Brazil?
