This for example: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Cataratas.jpg
If you don’t want to click the link, it’s the Iguazu Falls, Argentina and Brazil Border.
It’s basically a huge waterfall. To my understanding, it generates enormous amount of potential power, meanwhile every water power station I’ve seen is either flow of river or a dam. Could we not put a water wheel next to the waterfall or something?
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I am from Brazil and visited Iguaçu Falls (Brazilian spelling 😉 several times. It is an absolutely awesome sight in person.
Anyway, not far from there is the Itaipu Hydroelectric Dam, which is pretty much the result of doing just that to a waterfall that used to exist in that place, called Sete Quedas (Seven Falls). It was the largest Hydro in the world for several years, until it was surpassed by one in China.
The project dammed the Paraná River, creating the Itaipu Lake and submerging the falls, which can no longer be seen. The River now flows through 20 turbines, generating almost 80 TWh per year and supplying electricity at low cost to pretty much the whole South and Southeast regions of Brazil, where most of the country’s industrial base is, as well as covering most of the electricity needs of Paraguay.
If you go to the area, you can visit both Itaipu and Iguaçu Falls on the same day, and there is a lot more to see as well.
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