The Campos Novos Dam (also known as Barragem de Campos Novos locally) is a hydroelectric dam in the
Santa Catarina state in southern
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
. In 2006, at dam height, it was regarded as the third highest dam of this type (concrete-faced rock fill dam or CFRD) in the world, but, in June 2006, the water which it held back ran out following a break in the dam wall.
Built at a cost of $671 million
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...
, it is located on the
Canoas River, Brazil. It is part of a
hydro-electric complex intended to provide . A second dam is below this one, and together they can hold a little more than 2 cubic kilometers of water.
Ownership and construction
Campos Novos' 35 years build and operate concession was awarded in 1998. It is owned by ''Campos Novos Energia S.A.'' ("Enercan"), a consortium made up of Brazilian power company
CPFL Energia (formerly ''Companhia Paulista de Força e Luz'') with 48.7%, Brazilian aluminum maker
Companhia Brasileira de Aluminio (CBA) with 22.7%, metallurgy company ''Companhia Niquel Tocantins'' (CNT) with 20%, state-controlled companies (CEEE) with 6.5% and ''Centrais Elétricas de Santa Catarina S.A.'' ("
Celesc
Centrais Elétricas de Santa Catarina (Celesc) is the electricity utility for the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. In 2014, the company had around 2.6-million customers and sold around 23.3 TWh of electricity. It generates power from 1 ...
") with 2%.
The dam builder was a consortium led by Brazilian construction company
Camargo Corrêa Camargo may refer to:
Places Bolivia
* Camargo, Chuquisaca
Brazil
* Camargo, Rio Grande do Sul
Mexico
* Camargo Municipality, Chihuahua
** Camargo, Chihuahua, the municipal seat
* Camargo Municipality, Tamaulipas
* Camargo volcanic field, a vo ...
and engineering consultants . Funding is by the
Inter-American Development Bank
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or IADB) is an international development finance institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America. It serves as one of the leading sources of development financing for the countri ...
and state-owned
Brazilian Development Bank
The National Bank for Economic and Social Development or NBESD (, abbreviated: BNDES) is a development bank structured as a federal public company associated with the Ministry of the Economy of Brazil. The stated goal is to provide long-term fi ...
.
Cracks
A major break caused the water to begin to run out after a tunnel collapsed on 20 June 2006. The exact reasons for the cracking were unknown in July 2006, however it has been revealed that patches were begun on another tunnel in October 2005 before the recent tunnel failure.
[Giant cracks appear in new Brazilian dam](_blank)
, ''Environment News Service'', 2006-06-29
Since the dam failure, a full inquiry for the reasons behind the cracks has been done, and a time-line of the dam's progression towards failure has been completed.
Inquiry and Timeline
Following this discovery, hidden by the partners of the project, it appeared that these companies had maltreated the local populations. An investigation into the human rights violations was launched by United Nations Organisation
The United Nations (UN) is the global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among ...
.
Gallery
Image:CamposNovos DamCanoasRiver.jpg, Detour of the Canoas River, April 2005
Image:CamposNovos DamConstruction.jpg, 3 pipes on the left to the turbines, 4 water outlets on the right, April 2005
Image:CamposNovos DamEmpty.jpg, inside the future storage lake, 3 months before damming
Image:CamposNovos DamFilledUp.jpg, storage lake, March 2008
Image:CamposNovos DamRiver.jpg, lower side of the power station, March 2008
Image:CamposNovos DamPowerPole.jpg, March 2008
See also
* List of hydroelectric power stations
The following are lists of hydroelectric power stations based on the four methods of hydroelectric generation:
* List of conventional hydroelectric power stations, hydroelectric generation through conventional dams
* List of pumped-storage hydroe ...
* List of power stations in Brazil
The following page lists the power stations in Brazil.
Coal
Gas and oil fired
Gas turbines
Internal combustion engines
Nuclear
Hydroelectric
Solar
Wind
See also
* Electricity sector in Brazil
* Energy policy ...
* List of world's tallest dams
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
Engineering News Record
International Rivers
Dams completed in 2006
Energy infrastructure completed in 2007
Hydroelectric power stations in Brazil
Dams in Santa Catarina (state)
Dam failures in Brazil
Concrete-face rock-fill dams