Itaipú Dam
Picture courtesy of Itaipú
Binacional
The Itaipú hydroelectric power plant is the largest development
of its kind in operation in the world. Built from 1975 to 1991, in a binational
development on the Paraná River, Itaipú represents the efforts
and accomplishments of two neighboring countries, Brazil and Paraguay.
The power plant's 18 generating units add up to a total production capacity
of 12,600 MW (megawatts) and a reliable output of 75 million MWh a year.
Itaipú's energy production has broken several records over the recent
years, after the last generating unit was commissioned in 1991. The generation
of 77.212.396 MWh a year in 1995 will again be surpassed in 1996, and the
new record will be around the 80 million MWh a year mark.
The magnitude of the project can also be demonstrated by the fact that
in 1995 Itaipú alone responded for 25% of the energy supply in Brazil
and 78% in Paraguay. The power plant is also a major tourism attraction
in the Foz do Iguaçú area, having received around 9 million
visitors from 162 countries. The Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaçu,
also home of the famous Iguaçú
Falls, is located at the Western tip of Paraná State, right
by the border with Paraguay and Argentina.
The Itaipú hydroelectric power plant, located 14 kilometers
North of the International Bridge linking the cities of Foz do Iguaçú,
Brazil, and Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, consists of a series of various
types of dams a total distance of 7,744 meters with a crest elevation of
225 meters. The Powerhouse is located at the toe of the main Dam, most
of it on the river bed and the rest on the Diversion Channel. The nominal
power of the plant is 12,600 MW, divided between 18 generating units of
700 MW each, 15 of which are located in the main Powerhouse and the remaining
three on the Diversion Channel. The Spillway is located on the right bank,
and it has 14 segmented sluice-gates with a total discharge rate of 62,200
cubic meters per second (twice that of the highest flood- level on record).
The Concrete Main Dam is of the hollow gravity type and is connected to
the Spillway by a concrete buttress-type Wing Dam which continues thereon
as a small Cardhfill dike. On the left bank a Rockfill Dam is linked to
the Main Dam and at the other end to an Earthfill Dam. In order to build
the main dam wall and the Powerhouse, the river was diverted through a
Diversion Channel on the left bank.
The volumes of construction in Itaipú are also impressive. The
volume of iron and steel utilized in the Dam structure would be enough
to build 380 Eiffel Towers, and the volume of concrete used in Itaipú
represents 15 times the volume utilized to build the Channel Tunnel between
France and England. Itaipú is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern
World, according to a worldwide survey conducted by the American Society
of civil Engineers (ASCE) and published in Dec. 1995 as a cover article
of the North-American "Popular Mechanics". The article says that " To build
[the Itaipú Dam], workers reenacted a labor of Hercules: they shifted
the course of the seventh biggest river in the world (Paraná River,
at the Brazil/Paraguay border) and removed more than 50 million tons of
earth and rock." According to the magazine, "the true marvel of Itaipú,
though, is its powerhouse ... a single building that puts out 12,600 megawatts
-- enough to power most of California".
