Hydro World reports that Brazil’s massive, 14,000-MW Itaipu hydropower plant has broken its own world record for annual power production, with an output in 2012-13 of 98.63 TWh, according to operator Itaipu Binacional’s announcement.
Second only to China’s Three Gorges dam in overall capacity, Itaipu sits on the border between Brazil and Paraguay, and is managed by a joint agency. The reservoir is 170 kilometres long and 12 km wide, with 29 billion cubic metres capacity.
The world’s largest waterfall by volume, the Guaíra Falls, was drowned by the newly formed Itaipu reservoir. Ten thousand families, or 59,000 people, were displaced as the reservoir filled. With the loss of the original rainforest a temperature increase of 4°C has been recorded on the lands surrounding the reservoir. Debate continues as farmers claim negative impacts on local agriculture and power consumption rises across the region.
With files from Wikipedia and Stanford University.