IEEE Recognizes Itaipu Dam’s Engineering Achievements

Modern technology ought to profit mankind. Among one of the most impressive instances of modern technology’s possibility to offer long-lasting advantages is the Itaipu Hydroelectric Dam, a large binational power job in between Brazil and Paraguay. Improved the Paraná River, which develops component of the boundary in between both countries, Itaipu changed a once-contested hydroelectric source right into a common engine of financial development.

The power plant has actually held several documents. For years, it was the globe’s biggest hydroelectric center; the dam extends the river’s 7.9-kilometer size and gets to an elevation of 196 meters. Itaipu was also the first hydropower plant to generate more than 100 terawatt hours of electricity in a year.

To recognize Itaipu’s monumental engineering achievement, on 27 March the dam will certainly be acknowledged as an IEEE Milestone throughout an event in Hernandarias, Paraguay. The event will certainly celebrate the job’s influence on design and power manufacturing.

Itaipu’s large range

By the late 1960s, Brazil and Paraguay acknowledged the Paraná River’s untapped hydroelectric possibility, according to theGlobal Infrastructure Hub Brazil, which was going through fast automation, looked for a secure, renewable energy source to decrease its dependancy on nonrenewable fuel sources. On the other hand, Paraguay, doing not have the funds to create a gigawatt-scale hydroelectric center individually, became part of a treaty with Brazil in 1973. The arrangement given both countries equal ownership of the dam and its power generation.

Building started in 1975 and was finished in 1984, setting you back United States $19.6 billion. The range of the job was shocking. Designers dug deep into 50 million cubic meters of planet and rock, put 12.3 million cubic meters of concrete, and utilized adequate iron and steel to create 380 Eiffel Towers.

Itaipu was made for constant development. It originally introduced with 2 700-megawatt generator devices, giving 1.4 gigawatts of capability. By 1991, the nuclear power plant reached its scheduled 12.6 GW capability. In 2006 and 2007, it was broadened to 14 GW with the enhancement of 2 even more devices, for an overall of 20. Although China’s 22.5-GW Three Gorges Dam, on the Yangtze River near the city of Yichang, went beyond Itaipu’s capability in 2012, the South American dam continues to be among the globe’s most effective hydroelectric centers.

Generally, Itaipu creates around 90 terawatt-hours of electrical energy each year. It established a document by producing 103.1 TWh in 2016 (gone beyond in 2020 by 3 Canyons’ 111.8-TWh outcome). To place 100 TWh right into point of view, a nuclear power plant would certainly require to melt approximately 50 million tonnes of coal to generate the exact same quantity of power, according to the united state Energy Information Administration.

By taking advantage of 62,200 cubic meters of river water per 2nd, Itaipu avoids the launch of almost 100 million tonnes of co2 yearly. Throughout its 40-year life time, the dam has actually produced greater than 3,000 TWh of electrical energy, conference almost 90 percent of Paraguay’s power requirements and adding approximately 10 percent of Brazil’s electrical energy supply.

Itaipu’s tradition sustains as a testimony to the advantages of global participation and lasting power and to the power of design to form the future.

IEEE acknowledgment for Itaipu

The IEEE Turning point celebratory plaque, currently presented in the dam’s site visitor facility, highlights Itaipu’s function as a globe leader in hydroelectric power generation. It reviews:

“ Itaipu nuclear power plant building started in 1975 as a joint Brazil-Paraguay endeavor. When power generation began in 1984, Itaipu established a globe document for the solitary biggest mounted hydroelectric capability (14 GW). For at the very least 3 years, Itaipu created even more electrical energy each year than any kind of various other hydroelectric job. Connecting nuclear power plant, substations, and transmission lines in both Brazil and Paraguay, Itaipu’s system supplied trustworthy, inexpensive power to customers and sector“

Carried Out by the IEEE History Center and sustained by contributors, the Turning point program identifies exceptional technological growths worldwide. The IEEE Paraguay Section funded the election.

This write-up was upgraded on 21 March 2025.