I would like to discuss the issues with the construction of the dam, both negative and positive impacts of the dam to increase your awareness. It has started construction on the Xingu river in Brazil and it will be the third largest dam complex in the world. It will generate 11.233 gigawatts of power at peak capacity (average generation is 40% of the peak capacity which is 4.5 gigawatts which is a little over 6,000,000 horsepower). Brazil's total power production is 102.144 gigawatts of power.
Cons:
*The dam will cause a loss of bio-diversity because turbine blades can chop up marine life that accidentally enter. Also, 193.05 square miles of land will be flooded which is equal to 125,000 acres of land which will cause more loss of bio-diversity. However, the flooded land was largely deforested in 1970s by the trans-amazon highway.The land topography affects the amount of flooding in all hydro plants with dams. Plants built on flatland contribute to more flooding than hilly ones because the reservoirs are much larger. An infamous example is the Balbina Plant (shown below) which flooded about 600,000 acres, an area the size of Delaware!(frown,sad) And it only generated 233 megawatts of power compared to the fact that the Belo Monte will produce 11,233 megawatts at peak capacity and floods about 3/10 the acreage of Balbina.
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| the BALBINA PLANT |
*The dam displaces
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