Now in his final month in office, President Felipe Calderon inaugurated the enormous La Yesca hydroelectric dam on the Jalisco/Nayarit border on Tuesday.
Built at a cost of 1.4 billion pesos (30 percent over budget) and standing 208 meters tall, La Yesca is the second biggest dam in the world, behind China’s Three Gorges Dam. Located northwest of Guadalajara on the Rio Santiago, the dam will create a giant reservoir with a capacity of 2.5 billion cubic meters.
Supporting a 750-megawatt hydroelectric power station, the plant will generate 1.2 billion kilowatts of energy per year, enough to supply the entire state of Nayarit or half of the Guadalajara metropolitan area.“Today is a great day for Mexico, for the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), for Jalisco and for Nayarit,” Calderon said. “I am proud that La Yesca was built during my administration,” he added, commending everyone involved for their “titanic effort.”
Hydroelectric dams are the most profitable sources of clean, renewable energy, said Humberto Marengo Mogollon, the CFE’s hydropower projects coordinator, during the inauguration. Marengo also revealed that 25 master’s and doctoral theses have already been based on the construction of this innovative dam.
Construction of La Yesca began five years ago, directly creating 5,000 jobs and indirectly creating another 5,000, according to the CFE.
The project drew protests from local residents angered by the disruption and lack of adequate compensation, yet it remains less controversial than the Zapotillo dam in northeastern Jalisco because it has not resulted in the flooding of any nearby communities.