Itaipu is the world's biggest hydroelectric power station, and is located along the border River Parana, between Brazil and Paraguay. It is only 14km north of Foz do Iguassu downtown. It is an amazing construction, imagining one sole dam that has the capacity to generate 12.600 Mega Watt per month and provides 95% of the consumption of energy in Paraguay (5milj. inhab.) and 24% of the Brazilian (170milj. inhab.) demand of energy. During the year 2000 a world record was hold, an annual production of 93,428GWh.

The height of the main dam is 196 meters, which is equivalent to the height of a 65 storey building. The total volume of concrete used in the construction of Itaipu would be sufficient to build 210 football stadiums like the Maracanã, in Rio de Janeiro. The iron and steel employed would permit building 380 Eiffel Towers. The maximum flow over the Itaipu spillway (62.2 thousand cubic meters per second) corresponds to 40 times the average flow over the Iguassu Falls. The flow through two Itaipu turbines (700 cubic meters of water per second each), corresponds to the total average flow of the Iguaçu Falls (1500 cubic meters per second). The volume of earth and rock excavations at Itaipu is 8.5 times greater than that of the Euro tunnel (that links France and England under the English Channel) and the volume of concrete is 15 times greater. The area of the reservoir is 1,350km2.

The tour takes about 1,5hours. Upon arrival to the Itaipu Plant, you will go with a local bus and first watch a short film telling about the history of the dam, one of the "seven wonders of the world". Then you will experience a show of lights.