Spain's Cox Plans to Invest $2.9 Billion in Energy and Water Projects in El Salvador

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 13, El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele and Enrique José Riquelme, head of the Spanish company Cox, signed a memorandum of understanding on investment cooperation, planning to invest $2.9 billion in the country to develop natural gas, photovoltaic, energy storage, and water infrastructure projects. Of this, $1.8 billion is planned for natural gas facility construction, making it the largest single project in this investment, with the total investment amount equivalent to approximately 7% of the country's GDP.

The natural gas investment plan includes the construction of onshore natural gas storage facilities and a 380-megawatt gas-fired power plant. According to the announced plan, the storage facilities will supply natural gas to local power generation companies and industrial users, while also providing infrastructure for exporting natural gas or electricity to neighboring countries such as Guatemala. Cox plans to conduct natural gas import, storage, and distribution operations through the relevant facilities.

The power storage component is planned with an investment of $300 million to build a battery energy storage system with an initial power scale of 440 megawatts, which is subsequently planned to be expanded to 1,000 megawatts. The system is planned to store electricity generated by solar power plants during the day and supply power to the grid at night. An additional $200 million investment is allocated for photovoltaic power generation facilities, planned to be developed and operated by Cox, with the specific installed capacity and project site not yet announced.

The water engineering project is planned with an investment of $600 million, covering drinking water supply, water supply networks, and sewage treatment facilities. The related construction content involves improving the existing water distribution system, water quality management, and sewage treatment capacity. The investment arrangement announced this time has not yet detailed the specific project locations, designed treatment capacities, and construction timelines for each water project.

Nayib Bukele stated at the signing event that after the gas-fired power generation facilities are put into operation, the government plans to gradually reduce its dependence on fuel oil power generation. Cox head Enrique José Riquelme proposed conducting regional energy supply operations through the planned natural gas storage and distribution facilities. Currently, the cooperation document has been signed, and the specific implementation progress of each engineering project is yet to be further disclosed.