Brazil is pinning its hydropower hopes on a planned two-dam Amazon complex whose possible environmental impacts worry Brazilian scientists and green groups as well as officials in neighboring Bolivia. The proposed US$9 billion complex would feature two dams on the Madeira River in western Rondônia state. The dams, Santo Antônio and Jirau, would have installed capacities of 3,150 megawatts (MW) and 3,300 MW, respectively. Taken together, their capacity would exceed that of any Brazilian dam except Itaipú which, at 14,000 MW, is the world’s second most powerful after China’s Three Gorges Dam. Brazil’s government wants to auction concessions for the dam complex in the first quarter of this year so construction can start in June and be completed by 2011, when government officials... [Log in to read more]
