Originally they thought the expansion pack was going to be pretty hard to watch, but after finishing it, Yang Jing and his group actually felt a little unsatisfied.
The shots in the documentary are all about the essence of the Itaipu Dam. If Yang Jing hadn't watched the documentary, he wouldn't have known that the dam of the entire Itaipu Dam hub is 7,744 meters long, more than three times the length of the Three Gorges Dam.
Although the main dam of the Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Station is only 1,064 meters, the height of this main dam reaches 196 meters, which is 11 meters higher than the height of the Three Gorges Dam. It is the tallest large-head dam in the world!
No wonder Comrade Xiao Wang said before coming here that the dam of the Itaipu Dam is more spectacular than the Three Gorges Dam.
In addition, the construction of the Itaipu Dam created eight lakeside recreational areas in the upper reaches of the Paraná River, so the local government of Brazil brought in yellow sand to pave the area and make it look like a beach, which is considered an added benefit of the dam project.
In addition, this hydroelectric power station with 20 700,000-kilowatt generators is jointly owned by Brazil and Paraguay, with Paraguay accounting for 10 generators and Brazil accounting for 10 generators. However, the electricity generated by two of the generators can provide 75% of the electricity consumption of the entire Paraguay, so the electricity generated by the other eight generators belonging to Paraguay is sold to Brazilians.
In fact, the two countries had some dirty talk about this matter.
The Parana River is the second largest river in South America and the fourth largest river in the world in terms of runoff. It has extremely abundant water resources. If such abundant water resources are not properly utilized, it would be a waste of natural resources.
So the governments of Paraguay and Brazil sat down together and started to discuss. I said, buddy, if we don't make use of such abundant water resources, God will not agree.
Yes, man, why don’t we develop this river’s hydropower resources together!
The two governments hit it off and decided to build the Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Station on the Paraná River.
In 1984, the Itaipu Dam was ready to start construction. According to the original agreement between the two countries, both sides would pay 50% of the start-up capital each, and the future power generation would be equally divided between the two countries.
This agreement is very good, but unfortunately, Paraguay is so damn poor. Asking them to come up with such a large sum of money is simply forcing the government of this country to commit suicide!
So the Paraguayan government approached the Brazilian government and said, brother, you see we are in a bit of a difficult situation right now and we can’t come up with so much money for the time being, but we can’t delay the construction of the hydropower station, so brother, you better lend us some money!
When the Brazilian government heard this, they said without hesitation, "No problem, buddy. We are good brothers. It's just money. We will lend it to you!"
Therefore, Paraguay borrowed money from Brazil. Therefore, not only the start-up capital of the hydropower station, but also the funds for the subsequent construction and operation of the hydropower station came from loans from Brazil, totaling 18 billion US dollars. According to the provisions of both parties, Paraguay must repay this loan by 2023.
In other words, all the funds for the construction of the Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Station came from Brazil. Therefore, Brazil naturally hopes to get some benefits in the final distribution of benefits. In fact, for Paraguay, which had a population of less than six million at the time, it was impossible to use up all the 50% of electricity. At that time, Paraguay's actual annual electricity consumption was only 5% of the total power generation of Itaipu, that is, the power generated by one generator set. The two parties therefore stipulated that Paraguay would sell the remaining 45% of electricity to Brazil at cost price, and it could only be sold to the Brazilian Electricity Company.
Although Brazil paid Paraguay about $45 per megawatt-hour, Paraguay actually only received about $3, and the remaining $42 was used to repay the debt it had borrowed from Brazil.
This was originally a good thing, but the terrible thing is that people are greedy. After a long time, Paraguay found that it was not cost-effective. Because although the money was paid by Brazil, Paraguay has been paying back the loan. This means that after 2023, Brazil will not only get back the cost, but also continue to use energy at a very low price. At this time, many countries in South America want to buy Paraguay's excess electricity at market prices. However, due to the original regulations, Paraguay cannot freely dispose of excess electricity resources. Therefore, Paraguay hopes to be able to sell excess electricity freely, rather than only selling it to Brazil. In addition, Brazil should also increase the purchase price.
But in the eyes of Brazilians, what the Paraguayans did was purely out of wolfish ambitions!
As the saying goes, it is only natural to repay debts, and the income brought to Paraguay by the Itaipu Dam exceeds 4% of its GDP. 80% of the country's electricity comes from the dam. Paraguay has not only solved its domestic energy problems through the dam, but also earned huge income, which is a typical example of "making money out of nothing".
But even so, you Paraguayans are still not satisfied. You even want to further expand the profits of the hydropower station, increase the electricity price, and use Brazilians' money to make money from Brazilians. We Brazilians are certainly not happy about this.
This is the origin of the dispute between the two parties.
However, the incident was eventually settled thanks to the joint efforts of former Paraguayan President Lugo and former Brazilian President Lula.
On July 25, 2009, then Brazilian President Lula and Paraguayan President Lugo reached a new agreement on the Itaipu Dam jointly owned by the two countries in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. According to the agreement, Brazil will significantly increase the price of electricity purchased from Paraguay, and gradually allow Paraguay to freely sell electricity to Brazil without interference from the Brazilian Electricity Company. Thus, the dispute over the Itaipu Dam, which had long affected the relationship between the two countries, came to a temporary end.
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