Turning on the Power

For all its political and economic disarray, Brazil remains a huge, vigorously growing nation that is learning to take advantage of its universal resources. One day recently, President Castello Branco flew 350 miles south from Brasilia to preside over two impressive ceremonies. At a construction site on the Rio Grande River in Minas Gerais, a mighty dynamite blast signaled the start of work on the Estreito Dam, which will generate 800,000 kw. of power when it is finished in 1969. A few hours later and 44 miles away, Castello Branco witnessed the completion of Latin America's biggest hydroelectric complex: the $186 million Furnas Dam, generating 900,000 kw.

Furnas Dam raised Brazil's generating capacity to 7,100,000 kw., double the 1960 level and more than all the rest of South America. By 1970, the government will boost capacity another 60% just to stay even with the country's ever-expanding, chronically power-starved markets. Next year, when two more generators go on line, Furnas alone will grow to 1,200,000 kw. (v. 1,974,000 kw. for Grand Coulee, the U.S.'s largest hydro operation).

Half a dozen other major projects are under way, from the Boa Esperanca Dam to three new dams in the frontier state of Mato Grosso. Brazilians dream of harnessing the raging Parana River, creating a complex twelve times as big as Egypt's Aswan Dam. The Parana's potential: 25 million kw.

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