Today we woke up and prepared for our trip to the Itaipu Dam, where we were able to tour the facilities and go inside the dam. We viewed many different sites both outside and inside the dam, we learned all about the structure of the dam and the different controls and many statistics about the power it produces. Itaipu is the third largest hydro power producer in the world and produces 25% of Brazil’s electric power. Although this dam is not the largest in the world, it produces 14,000 megawatts of power which is more than the Three Gorges Dam. Hydropower however is not always clean energy because it disrupts water flow for fish and other marine species which can be detrimental and cause certain species to go extinct in some cases. It also effects the land where water flow is redirected for the actual construction of the dam to be built. The creation of the Itaipú dam caused the extinction of twelve different species because of the land it had flooded. The Itaipu dam has everything split fifty fifty between Brazil and Paraguay including the control room and the workers in it because the river flow is from both sides. Although originally Paraguay and Brazil did not like each other, a treaty was signed between the two for the construction of the dam. Itaipa powers most if not all of the electric power in Paraguay and although they control ten of the twenty generators, they typically donate much of that power to Brazil every year because it is excess. After coming home from our tour of the dam, the owners of our hostel took us to a local spot by the river to skip rocks and eat dinner. |