Itaipu Dam, Brazil - Paraguay border

9th - 11th February

This is a massive dam built on the Brazil - Paraguay border on the Parana River started in 1973 and only completed in 1984 although the final turbine was only installed and became operational in 2007. The main section of the dam structure is 8kms long and 196m high. It has twenty penstocks each driving a 700MW turbine. Power output is split equally between Brazil and Paraguay and the dam produces 80% of Paraguay’s power requirements and 15% of Brazils although Brazil does buy surplus power from Paraguay.

A statur made of metal parts tp represent electricity, power and development at the visitors centre.

A few pictures of the dam itself.

A detail of one of the twenty penstocks.

 Next we had a look over the spillway which can reduce the amount of water in the reservoir at a rate of more than 40 times the a mount of water that flows over the Ignuazu Falls. We crossed the top of the dam and had a brief stop at a marina. There was an option to go for a boat ride on the lake but it didn’t appeal so I headed back to the start and looked around some of the exhibits. The dam used to be the largest hydroelectric generating plant in the world at 14,000MW until the Three Gorges project 
was completed which is rated at 22,000MW.

A couple of pictures of the massive spillways. The size is deceptive but you can just make out the yellow rails on top of the divide between the individual spillways and you could easily fit a six lane motorway into each spillway with space to spare.
                                      

A look out across the reservoir. It is not a very large reservoir as generation depends on the massive flow of the river which is relatively regular so it doesn't need a large reserve of water to cover periods of lower flow.

 A view downstream from the dam showing the gorge that would have existed where the reservoir sits now a days.

 On a different note but there is a link in terms of engineering is VW beetles which were common in the north of the continent but nonexistent in Argentina but just across the border I saw a red beetle. And around the town I saw more and so my search for different colours and modifications of beetles is back on! No photo of that elusive red beetle but there was cream, light blue, off white, white, dark blue and yet another light blue. I will be looking out for that red beetle over the next couple of days before leaving Foz de Iguazu.