Brazil - Itaipu Dam 09/13/2006

I met with Fabian, the Belgium guy from yesterdays trip to catch the bus to the Itaipu Dam. After a 30 minute ride through the city we reached the visitors center just in time for the introductory movie. Well, it almost felt like a propaganda movie. Next we boarded a bus to view the facilities and the dam. Our tour guide was 3rd generation German and I believe her ancestors came from Schlesien, based on her accent/dialect and choice of words.The dam is a great technological achievement. The 20 turbines generating 700 MegaWatts each, produce enough electricity to supply 85 % of Paraguay's and 25 % of Brazil's demand.The speed with which the dam was build is quite amazing (caveat it took over 20 years from initial discussions to the first turbine providing electricity), it was the equivalent of a 20 story building per day. They used as much steal in the construction as it would take to build 380 Eiffel Towers and concrete enough to build 210 stadiums such as Maracana in Rio.Two tubes feeding water to the turbines (there are 20 in total, one each for every turbine) have the same water throughput as the Iguazu Falls...... more facts at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itaipu

Of course there was the same problem as at the falls - no water. So no excess water gushing down the spillway. The maximum flow of the Itaipu's spillway is 62.2 thousand cubic metres per second, it is equivalent to 40 times the average flow of the Iguazu Falls.

Another interesting fact is that they had to make the concrete with ice (I would guess ice water), so that with the extreme heat in the summer of 45 degrees Celsius they were still able to pour continuously without the concrete drying up. They actually had 2 ice factories on site.

After touring the dam we went to the ecological museum, a cute little exhibition of local history, flora and fauna and of course the dam.

The dam viewed from the main vista point.

The spillway, unfortunately no water.

The dam from above showing the tubes leading to the turbines.

The channel that has been carved into the rock of the original river bed.