http://www.Channel5Belize.com
September 13, 2005

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 [this recent photo] indicates, 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.

Chalillo dam completed

by http://www.7newsbelize.com, September 13, 2005 After more than two years, construction finally finished yesterday on the 7.3 megawatts Chalillo site in the Mountain Pine Ridge Area. A release from the Fortis-owned Belize Electric Company says the turbines have begun to turn and the project’s completion has doubled the amount of energy produced from hydroelectricity, taking it from 80 gigawatts to 160 gigawatts. BECOL’s Vice-President of Operations, Stephen Usher, says completion of the dam will offset the rising cost of oil.