Balbina Dam

The Balbina Reservoir is a reservoir and a hydroelectric power plant about 100 km north of Manaus in Brazil. The Rio Uatumã, a tributary of the Amazon River is dammed here of a 33 m high dam at a 2360 km ² large lake with a storage space of 17,540 million cubic meters. The hydroelectric power plant supplies power from Manaus; it has with its five turbines of 50 MW maximum output of 250 megawatts.

The average depth of the lake is 7.4 m, the maximum depth of 30 m. The annual water level fluctuation is only 97.5 cm. The reservoir is flooded since 1987.

The shut-off is an embankment dam of earth and rock material. The dam was planned in the 1970s during the first oil crisis, in order to become independent of oil imports. It was financed by debt. Because of the low storage level only a comparatively small power production is possible, although a huge reservoir was created. The Tucuruí Reservoir, also located in the Amazon region, on the other hand generates electricity with a capacity of almost 8,000 MW.

The dam project is seen very disadvantageous today:

The project has contributed to the national debt
It lost a large area of tropical rain forest
On average can only be used 32% of the capacity of 250 MW, because the inflows are too low
Emissions of carbon dioxide are significantly (estimated at 20 - to 40 times ) higher than that of a thermal power plant with the same output
Through the stagnant water diseases are favored
Natives had to be resettled