Berlin Binary Cycle power plant

Audit Analysis

The Berlin Binary Cycle geothermal project in El Salvador is a CDM-registered renewable energy project with VVB-confirmed additionality and a reasonable leakage treatment, but it is undermined by a project-specific baseline with contradictory characterisation across documents, a 2005 grid emission factor, 17 material findings including a capacity discrepancy, and three outstanding corrective actions. Verified emission reductions for the 2014 monitoring period were lower than PDD estimates, which is reassuring for over-crediting risk, yet the absence of FNRB, usage-rate, and CORSIA/CCP data leaves significant transparency gaps.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Installed capacity in the PDD (9.2 MW) differed from nameplate capacity (11.56 MW); the verification report confirmed 9.2 MW due to thermodynamic limits, but the PDD was never formally updated (CAR outstanding).
• ⚠Grid emission factor of 0.693 tCO2/MWh is drawn from 2005 data, making the baseline reference value potentially outdated for a project operating through 2014.
• ⚠Three corrective actions remain open, including incomplete stakeholder comment summary and an inadequate monitoring-indicators table, indicating unresolved documentation deficiencies.
• ⚠The baseline method is characterised as 'project-specific' in the 2015 monitoring report but 'jurisdictional' in an earlier document, creating ambiguity about the baseline's robustness.

Credit Vintages