Belo Monte Dam Belo Monte Dam The Belo Monte Dam ("formerly known as" Kararaô) is a hydroelectric dam complex currently under construction on the northern part of the Xingu River in the state of Pará, Brazil. The planned installed capacity of the dam complex would be 11,233 megawatts (MW), which would make it the second largest hydroelectric dam complex in Brazil and fourth largest in the world by installed capacity, behind the Three Gorges Dam and the Xiluodu Dam in China and the Brazilian-Paraguayan Itaipu Dam. Considering the oscillations of flow river, guaranteed minimum capacity generation from the Belo Monte Dam would measure
Three Gorges Dam St Lawrence Seaway, but half as deep. Before the dam was constructed, the maximum freight capacity at the Three Gorges site was 18.0 million tonnes per year. From 2004 to 2007, a total of 198 million tonnes of freight passed through the locks. The freight capacity of the river increased six times and the cost of shipping was reduced by 25%. The total capacity of the ship locks is expected to reach 100 million tonnes per year. These locks are staircase locks, whereby inner lock gate pairs serve as both the upper gate and lower gate. The gates are the