Watt a dam! (Itaipu dam generates hydroelectric power for Brazil and Paraguay)

• Author: Luxner, Larry

Shaking hands on an international bridge unmarked by boundaries, the presidents of Paraguay and Brazil inaugurated Itaipu--the world's largest hydroelectric project--this past May, 18 years after the two countries began constructing the dam in 1973.

With the opening of turbines Number 17 and 18, Presidents Fernando Collor de Mello of Brazil and Andres Rodriguez of Paraguay symbolically unleashed the full 12,6000-megawatt force of Itaipu, even though the eight-kilometer-long dam has, in fact, been operating at nearly full potential for several months.

Speakers at the May 6 ceremony, marked by extravagant displays of music, folklore and diplomatic protocol by both countries, also threw in some impressive statistics about Itaipu: each of the 18 turbines--nine in Brazil and nine in Paraguay--produces 715 megawatts of power, which together generate more electricity than the United States' Grand Coulee and Egypt's Aswan Dam combined.

In addition, the dam drains a total of 820,000 square kilometers along the Rio Parana dividing both countries, and has created a 1,350-square-kilometer artificial lake, as well as temporary jobs for 42,000 workers and permanent ones for another 6,000.

Officials of Itaipu Binacional, the joint Paraguayan/Brazilian commission set up to administer the dam, estimate that the project has cost the two governments some $18.3 billion since its inception. Financed largely by Brazilian banks and private investors, the dam is both an important source of energy for Brazil--providing 35 percent of the country's domestic electricity needs--as well as an important source of revenue for Paraguay. The reason is simple: landlocked Paraguay, with only four million people and little heavy industry, uses less than 2 percent of Itaipu's energy, equivalent to only half of the generating capacity of one of the dam's 18 turbines. Nevertheless, Paraguay has the rights to 50 percent of the electricity produced there. Sales of energy to Brazil...