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Found out Brazil had 70% of its electricity from hydro in 2024
I was reading some energy stats last night on a government site and it blew my mind. Brazil gets like 70% of its power from hydroelectric dams. That is a huge number compared to the US where I think we are under 10%. I knew they had a lot of rivers but I didn't realize it was that dominant. It makes me wonder what happens during a big drought though. They must have backup plans right? Has anyone else looked into how other countries handle their energy mix? I feel like we never hear about this stuff in the news.
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davis.ruby23d ago
Man that is wild to think about. 70% is a huge chunk, you gotta wonder what they do if the rivers run low. I guess they have gas plants or something on standby but still, that's a lot of pressure on a single source. It's kind of scary how little backup they might have if a serious drought hits. I really feel for the people managing that grid, can't be easy.
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the_jordan23d ago
The thing that gets me is the transmission side. Brazil has the Itaipu dam which alone does like 14 GW, but it's way out on the Paraguay border. To get that power to Sao Paulo or Rio they run these massive high voltage lines through the Amazon. I read something about how they lose around 15-17% of their electricity just from transmission losses, which is almost double what we see in the US. So you have this massive single source feeding the whole grid but it's also the most inefficient part of the system.
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