Itaipu Dam

The concept behind the Itaipu Power Plant was the result of serious negotiations between the two countries during the 1960s. The "Ata do Iguaçu" (Iguaçu Act) was signed on July 22, 1966, by the Brazilian and Paraguayan Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Juracy Magalhães and Raúl Sapena Pastor. This was a joint declaration of the mutual interest in studying the exploitation of the hydro resources that the two countries shared in the section of the Paraná River starting from, and including, the Salto de Sete Quedas, to the Iguaçu River watershed. The treaty that gave origin to the power plant was signed in 1973.

The terms of the treaty, which expired in 2023, have been the subject of widespread discontent in Paraguay. The government of President Lugo vowed to renegotiate the terms of the treaty with Brazil, which long remained hostile to any renegotiation.{{cite web|last=Nickson|first=Andrew|title=Paraguay: Lugo versus the Colorado Machine|work=Open Democracy|date=20 February 2008|url=http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/democracy_power/politics_protest/paraguay_fernando_lugo|access-date=3 August 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090803073835/http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/democracy_power/politics_protest/paraguay_fernando_lugo|archive-date=3 August 2009|url-status=live}}{{cite web|last=Mander|first=Benedict|title=Brazil's Itaipú dam treaty with Paraguay up for renewal|work=Financial Times|date=20 September 2017|url=https://www.ft.com/content/bf02af96-7eb8-11e7-ab01-a13271d1ee9c |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/bf02af96-7eb8-11e7-ab01-a13271d1ee9c |archive-date=2022-12-10 |url-access=subscription}}

In 2009, Brazil agreed to a fairer payment of electricity to Paraguay and also allowed Paraguay to sell excess power directly to Brazilian companies instead of solely through the Brazilian electricity monopoly.{{cite news|date=26 July 2009|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8169139.stm|title=Why Brazil gave way on Itaipu dam|access-date=2009-07-26|work=BBC|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090726101650/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8169139.stm|archive-date=26 July 2009|url-status=live}}{{cite news|work=New York Times|first=Alexei|last=Barrionuevo|date=July 27, 2009|page=A10|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/world/americas/27paraguay.html|title=Energy Deal With Brazil Gives Boost to Paraguay|access-date=February 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820035519/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/world/americas/27paraguay.html|archive-date=August 20, 2017|url-status=live}}

In 1970, the consortium formed by the companies ELC Electroconsult S.p.A. (from Italy) and IECO (from the United States)International Engineering Company, Inc. (IECO) was a subsidiary of Morrison-Knudsen. See {{cite web |title=Morrison-Knudsen Company, Inc. |publisher=Baker Library, Harvard Business School |url=http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/lehman/company.html?company=morrison_knudsen_company_inc |access-date=2014-09-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319173455/http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/lehman/company.html?company=morrison_knudsen_company_inc |archive-date=2015-03-19 |url-status=live }} won the international competition for the realization of the viability studies and for the elaboration of the construction project. Design studies began in February 1971. On April 26, 1973, Brazil and Paraguay signed the Itaipu Treaty, the legal instrument for the hydroelectric exploitation of the Paraná River by the two countries. On May 17, 1974, the Itaipu Binacional entity was created to administer the plant's construction. The construction began in January of the following year. Brazil's (and Latin America's) first electric car was introduced in late 1974; it received the name Itaipu in honor of the project.{{cite web | url = http://quatrorodas.abril.com.br/classicos/brasileiros/conteudo_229224.shtml | title = Clássicos: Grandes Brasileiros: Gurgel Itaipu | trans-title = Classics: Brazilian Greats: Gurgel Itaipu | language = pt | last = Pereira | first = Fabiano | publisher = Quatro Rodas | date = April 2007 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070830163205/http://quatrorodas.abril.com.br/classicos/brasileiros/conteudo_229224.shtml | archive-date = 2007-08-30 }}

On October 14, 1978, the Paraná River had its route changed, which allowed a section of the riverbed to dry so the dam could be built there.

The construction of the dam was first contested by Argentina, but the negotiations and resolution of the dispute ended up setting the basis for Argentine–Brazilian integration later on.{{cite journal |last=Schenoni |first=Luis |title=Regional Power Transitions: Lessons from the Southern Cone |journal=GIGA Working Papers |date=2016 |url=https://www.academia.edu/29398128 |access-date=2017-03-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180920114823/http://www.academia.edu/29398128/Regional_Power_Transitions_Lessons_from_the_Southern_Cone |archive-date=2018-09-20 |url-status=live }}

An important diplomatic settlement was reached with the signing of the Acordo Tripartite by Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, on October 19, 1979. This agreement established the allowed river levels and how much they could change as a result of the various hydroelectrical undertakings in the watershed that was shared by the three countries.

{{Main|Itaipu Lake}}

The reservoir began its formation on October 13, 1982, when the dam works were completed and the side canal's gates were closed. Throughout this period, heavy rains and flooding accelerated the filling of the reservoir as the water rose {{convert|100|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}} and reached the gates of the spillway on October 27.{{citation needed|date=October 2012|reason=The reservoir rose 100 meters in just 14 days from October 13 to 27?}}

On May 5, 1984, the first generation unit started running in Itaipu. The first 18 units were installed at the rate of two to three a year; the last two of these started running in the year 1991.

Image:Itaipu 3285.jpg

The last two of the 20 electric generation units started operations in September 2006 and in March 2007, thus raising the installed capacity to 14 GW and completing the power plant. This increase in capacity allows 18 generation units to run permanently while two are shut down for maintenance. Due to a clause in the treaty signed between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, the maximum number of generating units allowed to operate simultaneously cannot exceed 18 (see the agreement section for more information).

The rated nominal power of each generating unit (turbine and generator) is 700 MW. However, because the head (difference between reservoir level and the river level at the bottom of the dam) that actually occurs is higher than the designed head ({{cvt|118|m|||disp=or}}), the power available exceeds 750 MW half of the time for each generator.

Each turbine generates around 700 MW; by comparison, all the water from the Iguaçu Falls would have the capacity to feed only two generators.

{{Main|2009 Brazil and Paraguay blackout}}

On November 10, 2009, transmission from the plant was completely disrupted, possibly due to a storm damaging up to three high-voltage transmission lines.{{cite news|title=Apagão teve origem em função de condições meteorológicas, diz MME|date=2009-11-11|first=Diego|last=Abreu|work=Globo News|url=http://g1.globo.com/Sites/Especiais/Noticias/0,,MUL1374655-17814,00-APAGAO+TEVE+ORIGEM+EM+FUNCAO+DE+CONDICOES+METEOROLOGICAS+DIZ+MME.html|access-date=2009-11-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091114090205/http://g1.globo.com/Sites/Especiais/Noticias/0,,MUL1374655-17814,00-APAGAO+TEVE+ORIGEM+EM+FUNCAO+DE+CONDICOES+METEOROLOGICAS+DIZ+MME.html|archive-date=2009-11-14|url-status=dead}} Itaipu itself was not damaged. This caused massive power outages in Brazil and Paraguay, blacking out the entire country of Paraguay for 15 minutes, and plunging Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo into darkness for more than 2 hours. 50 million people were reportedly affected.{{cite news|date=2009-11-11|work=BBC|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8353878.stm|title=Major Power Failures Hit Brazil|access-date=2009-11-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091111100938/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8353878.stm|archive-date=2009-11-11|url-status=live}} The blackout occurred at 22:13 local time. It affected the southeast of Brazil most severely, leaving São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo completely without electricity. Blackouts also swept through the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, the interior of Bahia and parts of Pernambuco, energy officials said.{{cite news|first=Alexei|last=Barrionuevo|work=New York Times|date=November 11, 2009|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/world/americas/12brazil.html|title=Brazil Looks for Answers After Huge Blackout|access-date=February 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831034359/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/world/americas/12brazil.html|archive-date=August 31, 2017|url-status=live}} By 00:30 power had been restored to most areas.

In 1994, the American Society of Civil Engineers elected the Itaipu Dam as one of the seven modern Wonders of the World. In 1995, the American magazine Popular Mechanics published the results.{{Citation

| last = Pope

| first = Gregory T.

| title = The seven wonders of the modern world

| newspaper = Popular Mechanics

| pages = 48–56

| date = December 1995

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=O2YEAAAAMBAJ&q=itaipu&pg=PA50

| access-date = 2017-09-01

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170305180336/https://books.google.com/books?id=O2YEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA50&dq=itaipu&as_brr=1&pg=PA50

| archive-date = 2017-03-05

| url-status = live

}}

{{wide image|Itaipu Décembre 2007 - Vue Générale.jpg|1500px|Panoramic view of the Itaipu Dam, with the spillways (closed at the time of the photo) on the left}}

{{wide image|Itaipú Dam 325m 260m 247m 225m 196m 1981 Mechanical Power Plant Foz Do Iguaçu Brazil.png|1500px|

This diagram shows in detail the heights:

{{convert|325|m|ft}}, entire dam including the {{convert|100|m|ft}} high Power Line 4 Pylons atop the Barrage

{{convert|260|m|ft}}, dam + the foundation inside water until the river floor

{{convert|247|m|ft}}, {{convert|196|m|ft}} high of roof reinforcement concrete dam + Cranes atop the Barrage

{{convert|225|m|ft}}, Elevation End Main Concrete Barrage

{{convert|196|m|ft}}, The official roof given from Itaipú Binacional Webpage}}

When construction of the dam began, approximately 10,000 families living beside the Paraná River were displaced because of construction.{{cite journal |title=News & Notes |journal=Water and Energy International |volume=61|issue=4|year=2004|url=http://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:wei&volume=61&issue=4&article=001&type=pdf}}Terminski, Bogumil (2013). "Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement: Theoretical Frameworks and Current Challenges", Indiana University, available at: http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlc/handle/10535/8833?show=full {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214213848/http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlc/handle/10535/8833?show=full |date=2013-12-14 }}

The world's largest waterfall by volume, the Guaíra Falls, was inundated by the newly formed Itaipu reservoir. The Brazilian government later liquidated the Guaíra Falls National Park. A few months before the reservoir was filled, 80 people died when an overcrowded bridge overlooking the falls collapsed, as tourists sought a last glimpse of the falls.{{cite web|url=http://internationalrivers.org/en/blog/glenn-switkes/farewell-seven-falls|title=Farewell, Seven Falls|first=Glenn|last=Switkes|date=2008-03-14|access-date=2010-03-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100121063123/http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/blog/glenn-switkes/farewell-seven-falls|archive-date=2010-01-21|url-status=dead}}

The Guaíra Falls was an effective barrier that separated freshwater species in the upper Paraná basin (with its many endemics) from species found below it, and the two are recognized as different ecoregions.{{cite journal |last1=Júlio Júnior |first1=Horácio Ferreira |last2=Tós |first2=Claudenice Dei |last3=Agostinho |first3=Ângelo Antonio |last4=Pavanelli |first4=Carla Simone |title=A massive invasion of fish species after eliminating a natural barrier in the upper rio Paraná basin |journal=Neotropical Ichthyology |date=2009 |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=709–718 |doi=10.1590/S1679-62252009000400021|doi-access=free }} After the falls disappeared, many species formerly restricted to one of these areas have been able to invade the other, causing problems typically associated with introduced species. For example, more than 30 fish species that formerly were restricted to the region below the falls have been able to invade the region above.

The American composer Philip Glass has written a symphonic cantata named Itaipu, in honour of the structure.

The Santa Maria Ecological Corridor now connects the Iguaçu National Park with the protected margins of Lake Itaipu, and via these margins with the Ilha Grande National Park.{{citation|location=Asunción|date=5 April 2016|language=pt|page=3|last=Teixeira|first=Cristiano|publisher=Itaipu Binacional/MI|title=Corredor Ecológico de Santa Maria, Paraná – Brasil|url=http://www.paraguaybio.com.py/forocorredoresbiologicos/Presentaciones/Dia-2-Cristiano%20Teixeira%20-%20Corredor%20Ecologico%20de%20Santa%20Maria.pdf|access-date=2016-11-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161105094845/http://www.paraguaybio.com.py/forocorredoresbiologicos/Presentaciones/Dia-2-Cristiano%20Teixeira%20-%20Corredor%20Ecologico%20de%20Santa%20Maria.pdf|archive-date=2016-11-05|url-status=dead}}

File:Itaipu-Wasserkraftwerk Kontrollraum.JPG

File:Itaipu Dam.jpg

• The course of the seventh biggest river in the world was shifted, as were 50 million tonnes of earth and rock.
• The amount of concrete used to build the Itaipu Power Plant would be enough to build 210 football stadiums the size of the Estádio do Maracanã.
• The iron and steel used would allow for the construction of 380 Eiffel Towers.
• The volume of excavation of earth and rock in Itaipu is 8.5 times greater than that of the Channel Tunnel and the volume of concrete is 15 times greater.
• Around forty thousand people worked in the construction.{{cite web|url=http://www.unmuseum.org/7wonders/megadam.htm|title=Seven Wonders of the Modern World: The Itaipu Dam|work=unmuseum.org|access-date=2014-04-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107110217/http://www.unmuseum.org/7wonders/megadam.htm|archive-date=2014-01-07|url-status=dead}}
• Itaipu is one of the most expensive objects ever built.

• The total length of the dam is {{convert|7235|m}}. The crest elevation is {{convert|225|m}}. Itaipu is actually four dams joined together – from the far left, an earth fill dam, a rock fill dam, a concrete buttress main dam, and a concrete wing dam to the right.
• The spillway has a length of {{convert|483|m}}.
• The maximum flow of Itaipu's fourteen segmented spillways is {{convert|62.2|e3m3/s|}}, into three skislope formed canals. It is equivalent to 40 times the average flow of the nearby natural Iguaçu Falls.
• The flow of two generators ({{convert|700|m3/s}} each) is roughly equivalent to the average flow of the Iguaçu Falls ({{convert|1500|m3/s}}).
• The dam is {{convert|196|m}} high, equivalent to a 65-story building.{{cite web |title= Itaipu binacional – Technical data – Comparisons |url= http://www.itaipu.gov.br |access-date= February 16, 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070216222828/http://www.itaipu.gov.br/ |archive-date= February 16, 2007 |url-status= dead }}
• Though it is the seventh largest reservoir in size in Brazil, the Itaipu's reservoir has the highest ratio of electricity production to flooded area. For the 14,000 MW installed power, {{convert|1350|km2}} were flooded. The reservoirs for the hydroelectric power plants of Sobradinho Dam, Tucuruí Dam, Porto Primavera Dam, Balbina Dam, Serra da Mesa Dam and Furnas Dam are all larger than the one for Itaipu, but have a smaller installed generating capacity. The one with the next largest hydroelectric production, Tucuruí, has an installed capacity of 8,000 MW, while flooding {{Convert|2430|km2|sqmi|0|abbr=on}} of land.
• Electricity is 55% cheaper when made by the Itaipu Dam than the other types of power plants in the area.

{{Tall image|Itaipu Décembre 2007 - Intérieur du barrage.jpg|240|700|alt=Inside the dam structure|Inside the dam structure}}

Although its designed peak generating capacity is only 14,000 MW, behind the 22,500 MW Three Gorges Dam, the dam formerly held the record for energy production with 101.6 TWh produced in 2016. This record was beaten in 2020, when the Three Gorges Dam produced a new record 111.8 TWh after extensive monsoon rainfall that year.{{cite web |title=Three Gorges Dam sets power generation record in 2020 |url=http://www.china.org.cn/business/2021-01/02/content_77072855.htm |access-date=31 May 2021}}

In the period 2012–2021, the Itaipu Dam maintained the second highest average annual hydroelectric production in the world averaging 89.22 TWh per year, second to the 97.22 TWh per year average of the Three Gorges Dam in that period.

{{clear}}

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{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Itaipu Dam}}

• [http://www.itaipu.gov.br/ Itaipu Company Site] {{in lang|pt|en|es}}
• [http://www.solar.coppe.ufrj.br/itaipu Introduction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041020221658/http://www.solar.coppe.ufrj.br/itaipu |date=2004-10-20 }}
• [http://www.solar.coppe.ufrj.br/itaipu_conv.html Power conversion] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990219130735/http://www.solar.coppe.ufrj.br/itaipu_conv.html |date=1999-02-19 }}
• [http://www.solar.coppe.ufrj.br/itaipu_ee.html Power conditioning] {{Webarchive|url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160519041557/http%3A//www.solar.coppe.ufrj.br/itaipu_ee.html |date=2016-05-19 }}
• [https://archive.today/20070312072221/http://www.abb.com/global/gad/gad02181.nsf/0/20ec7c132693a592c1256d8800401a73?OpenDocument The Itaipu Transmission System]
• [http://www.elc-electroconsult.com/ ELC-Electroconsult] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820181512/http://www.elc-electroconsult.com/ |date=2020-08-20 }}
• [http://voith.com/corp-en/industry-solutions/hydropower/large-hydro/itaipu-brazil.html Voith-Siemens Hydro Power Generation, one of the hydro turbines and generators manufacturer for this project]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100816131545/http://www.touchoilandgas.com/brazil-thermoelectric-priority-programme-a170-1.html Article on Brazil's Thermoelectric Priority Program Author's updated contact information]
• [http://waterlootravel.com/panoramica-itaipu-binacional Panoramic – Itaipu Binacional – Foz do Iguaçu – Brazil] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190628215848/http://waterlootravel.com/panoramica-itaipu-binacional/ |date=2019-06-28 }}

{{Paraná River dams}}

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Category:Brazil–Paraguay border

Category:Buttress dams

Category:Dams completed in 1984

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Category:Energy infrastructure completed in 1984

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Category:Foz do Iguaçu

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Category:Hydroelectric power stations in Paraguay

Category:Hydroelectric power stations in Paraná (state)