Itaipu Dam

The Itaipu Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Paraná River located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay. The name "Itaipu" is from an island near the construction site, named in the Guarani language after the concept of a "sounding stone." As of 2020, the Itaipu Dam's hydroelectric power plant produced the second-largest amount of electricity of any hydroelectric power plant in the world, only surpassed by the Three Gorges Dam plant in China. Itaipu also holds the 45th largest reservoir in the world. Following a 1973 treaty, Brazil and Paraguay started construction of the dam from 1970 to 1984, at the border between the two countries, 15 km (9.3 mi) north of the Friendship Bridge. The construction of the dam displaced 10,000 families, and flooded the Guaíra Falls, one of the largest waterfalls in the world. The project ranges from Foz do Iguaçu, in Brazil, and Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, in the south to Guaíra and Salto del Guairá in the north. The installed generation capacity of the plant is 14 GW, with 20 generating units providing 700 MW each with a hydraulic design head of 118 metres (387 ft). In 2016, the plant employed 3,038 workers. Of the twenty generator units currently installed, ten generate at 50 Hz for Paraguay and ten generate at 60 Hz for Brazil. Output of the Paraguayan generators exceeds the load in Paraguay, so most of their production is exported directly to the Brazilian side. Two 600 kV HVDC lines running 800 kilometres (500 mi) long carry the majority of the energy to Southeastern Brazil.

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