Happy Tycoon

Originally thought it was an ugly expansion, but after watching it, Yang Jing and his party were still a little bit unsatisfied.

The footage in the expansion film is all about the essence of the Itaipu Hydropower Station. If you hadn't looked at the expansion film, Yang Jing would not have known that the length of the dam of the entire Itaipu Hydropower Station complex was 7744 meters, which is the third of the Three Gorges Dam. Times more.

Although the main dam of the Itaipu Hydropower Station is only 1064 meters, the height of this main dam has reached 196 meters, which is 11 meters higher than the height of the Three Gorges Dam. It is the tallest dam in the world!

No wonder Comrade Xiao Wang said that the dam of the Itaipu Hydropower Station was more spectacular than the Three Gorges Dam before he came.

In addition, the construction of the Itaipu Dam created eight more lakeside recreational areas in the upper reaches of the Paraná River out of thin air, so the local government in Brazil transported yellow sand to pave it and make it look like a beach, which is regarded as an additional benefit of the dam project.

In addition, this hydropower station with twenty 700,000 kilowatts generating units is shared by Brazil and Paraguay. Paraguay occupies ten gensets and Brazil occupies ten gensets. However, the electricity generated by two of the generator sets can provide 75% of the electricity consumption in Paraguay. Therefore, the electricity generated by the other eight generator sets belonging to Paraguay are sold to Brazilians.

In fact, regarding this matter, the two countries have had sordidness.

The Paraná 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 used well, it would be a violent thing.

So the governments of Paraguay and Brazil sat together and started to discuss. I said, buddy, if we don't use such abundant water resources, God, his old man will not agree to it.

Yes, buddy, or let's develop the water resources of this harmony together!

So the two governments hit it off and decided to build the Itaipu Hydropower Station on the Paraná River.

In 1984, the Itaipu Hydropower Station was ready to start construction. According to the original agreement between the two countries, the two parties will each pay 50% of the start-up capital, and the future power generation will be equally divided between the two countries.

This agreement is very good, but it is a pity that Paraguay is so poor. If you ask them to put out such a large sum of money, it will simply force the government of this country to hang themselves collectively!

So the Paraguayan government approached the Brazilian government and said, buddy, you see that we have a bit of difficulty now, and we can't spend so much money for the time being, but we can't delay the construction of the hydropower station, so buddy, you still give us a loan. Bar!

When the Brazilian government heard this, it didn’t hesitate to say, no problem, buddies, are we good brothers? Isn’t it just money? We lend you!

As a result, Paraguay borrowed from Brazil. Therefore, not only the start-up funds for the hydropower stations, but also the funds for the construction and operation of the hydropower stations later, all came from Brazilian loans, totaling 18 billion U.S. dollars. According to the regulations of both parties, Paraguay must pay off this loan by 2023.

In other words, all the funding for the construction of the Itaipu Hydropower 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 could not use up 50% of the electricity. At that time, the actual electricity consumption in Paraguay was only 5% of Itaipu’s total power generation, that is, a generator set. Incoming call. The two parties therefore stipulated that Paraguay would sell the remaining 45% of the electricity to Brazil at cost, and that it could only be sold to the Brazilian power company.

Although the price Brazil paid to Paraguay was about 45 U.S. dollars per million watts per hour, Paraguay could only get about 3 U.S. dollars, and the remaining 42 U.S. dollars was used to pay off the original Brazilian debt.

This was a good thing, but it was scary because people were afraid of greed. After a long time, Paraguay found it was not worthwhile. Because even though the money came from Brazil, Paraguay has been repaying the loan. This is equivalent to Brazil not only getting the cost back after 2023, but also being able to use energy at a very low price. At this time, many countries in South America want to buy Paraguay's surplus electricity at market prices. However, limited by the original regulations, Paraguay cannot freely control the excess power resources. Therefore, Paraguay hopes to be able to sell the excess power freely, not only to Brazil. In addition, Brazil should also increase the purchase price.

But in the eyes of the Brazilians, the Paraguayans are purely wolfish ambitions to do so!

As the saying goes, repaying debts is justified, and the income of the Itaipu Hydropower Station to Paraguay exceeds 4% of its GDP, and 80% of Paraguay's electricity consumption comes from this hydropower station. Paraguay has not only solved the domestic energy problem through hydropower stations, but also has huge incomes. It is a typical "white wolf with empty gloves".

But that's it, you Paraguayans are still not satisfied, and you want to further expand the revenue of hydropower stations, increase the price of power supply, and use Brazilian money to make Brazilian money. Of course, we Brazilians are not happy.

This is the reason for the dispute between the two sides.

However, this incident was finally subdued with the joint efforts of former Paraguayan President Lugo and former Brazilian President Lula.

On July 25, 2009, Lula, then President of Brazil, and President Lugo of Paraguay, reached a new agreement in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, on the Itaipu Hydropower Station jointly owned by the two countries. According to the agreement, Brazil will substantially increase the price of electricity purchased from Paraguay, and will gradually allow Paraguay to freely sell electricity to Brazil without interference from the Brazilian power company. So far, the dispute over the Itaipu Hydropower Station, which has long affected the relations between the two countries, has temporarily come to an end.

A truth can also be seen through this incident, that is, there are no eternal friends, only eternal interests!

After watching the movie, the group got on the sightseeing bus. According to Comrade Xiao Wang's reminder, Yang Jing and his group occupied the position on the right side of the second floor of the bus. And when they had just sat firmly, and the bus had not started yet, there was a sound like thunder in the distance.

Everyone looked in the direction where the sound came from, but they could see nothing but a rising mist of water.

Xiao Wang smiled and said: "We are blessed this time. The sound must be that the floodgate has opened and the reservoir has begun to discharge. Don't worry, the flood discharge will not end in a while, let's take it slowly. From the passage, you can see the spectacular scenery of the flood discharge."

The bus started quickly and began to drive towards the inside of the hydropower station. The straight line distance from the dam is close to four kilometers.

However, the bus did not drive directly to the dam. Instead, it stopped at the middle of the building complex. Xiao Wang explained: “This is the first stop to visit, because there is the Itaipu Eco-Museum. You can see all the introductions about the Itaipu Hydropower Station, even the miniature generator sets. It’s not bad to go in and have a look."

Since it's here, don't say anything, just follow along. So the group went around the Eco-Museum, and combined with the expansion film they saw before, Yang Jing and the others have a better understanding of the Itaipu Hydropower Station.

After coming out of the museum, Grid pointed to a piece of grass on the banks of the Parana River and shouted in surprise: "Look at it, what kind of animal is that? So cute..."

On that piece of grass, animals more than eleven meters long and more than half a meter high were lazily eating there, and several little guys who were obviously cubs followed their mothers and moved cautiously.

These animals do look cute, cute and silly, no wonder Grid is a little overjoyed.

Comrade Xiao Wang took a look and said: "Sister-in-law, that is the capybara, a unique animal in South America. But this animal here is the ‘pig’ raised in the water by the locals, and is one of the main sources of meat for the locals."

"Oh, how can the locals like to eat such a cute little animal?" Grid was a little angry.

Xiao Wang explained with a smile: "Sister-in-law, no way. Capybara can be bred artificially in South America, just like our domestic pigs. This animal has a good meat yield and a good taste. The locals have become an important source of meat, and we cannot change this situation."

It didn’t take long for the car to move forward and saw the towering dam, and the bus stopped again. Xiao Wang said, “This is the designated first stop for taking pictures. Here you can see the entire main dam. ."

When everyone got out of the car, they immediately saw a huge robot welded with steel pipes. This white-painted robot holds a torch in his hand, as if it is walking forward.

After taking some photos here, the car went up to the dam, but in the middle of the dam, below the road is the generator set of the hydropower station. .

I just looked at the dam from a distance. It doesn’t seem to be very high~www.readwn.com~ But when you really walk on the two-way four-lane road above the generator set, you can fully feel the dam. The majesty.

The original huge double-decker sightseeing bus felt like a little mouse facing an elephant in front of the dam. The most eye-catching thing on the dam is the 20 thick white diversion pipes. The water from the reservoir enters the turbine through these diversion pipes, and then drives the turbine to rotate and start generating electricity.

The twenty white pipes are so thick that the double-decker bus more than ten meters long is not even half the thickness of a pipe!

Twenty thick pipes are lined up in a row. Standing in front of these pipes, it looks like a tiny ant.

"Spectacular! It's really spectacular!" Although he couldn't get off the bus, he could feel the majestic momentum of the dam even while sitting in the bus, and Grid was completely suppressed.

After the bus passed the main dam, it actually returned from Brazil to Paraguay again. Then the bus traveled a certain distance between the main dam and the floodgate, and finally came to the floodgate that was releasing the flood!