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LaGeo
El Salvador’ s energy sector is highly focused on renewable resources, and indeed the country stands as the largest producer of geothermal energy in Central America. Hydroelectric generation is almost entirely owned and operated by CEL( Comisión Hidroeléctrica del Río Lempa), which started geothermal exploration in 1958. Meanwhile, the remaining generation capacity is held by private entities, such as LaGeo, an electrical power generation company that began operations in 1999. With over 25 years of experience, LaGeo specializes in leveraging geothermal resources to produce electricity. Marlene Jamilet Elias de Quan, General Manager, talks us through the company’ s operations.
“ In total, we have an installed capacity of 216.6 megawatts( MW) across several power plants. The largest facility is in Berlín, with an installed capacity of 116.6 MW, followed by the Ahuachapán plant with a capacity of 95 MW, and the San Vicente plant, which has a capacity of five MW. These locations all feature technology from very well recognized and experienced suppliers, including Mitsubishi, Fuji, Nuovo Pignone, ENEX, Turboden and Alstom,” she opens.
Despite being the smallest of LaGeo’ s power plants, San Vicente plays a crucial role in the company’ s operations. While still in its relatively early days of operations, plans are already under consideration to further expand the plant, as Marlene explains.“ We have taken the important first step in developing the San Vicente geothermal field with the installation of an Alstom five MW back pressure unit, which has been in operation since 2023. This initial setup empowers us to confirm the field’ s production potential, gather operating data, and demonstrate that San Vicente can reliably contribute to the country’ s renewable baseload generation. As we work to ensure the long-term growth of the San Vicente field, our motivation for expanding the plant is to unlock its full geothermal capacity. We are
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