External Relations & Mines and Energy press release

On this day, February 28, 2023, the last installment of the loans taken out for construction of the Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Plant was settled. Fifty years ago, in 1973, Brazil and Paraguay signed the Treaty of Itaipu, a legal instrument – and a landmark in the binational joint venture – that allowed the two countries to use the Paraná River for hydroelectric power.

Itaipu is an achievement by both Brazilian and Paraguayan consumers, who have helped project costs to be paid off over the last few decades.

Binational Itaipu (Itaipu Binacional) is a strategic company for the energy security of Brazil and Paraguay: it has met more than 13% of the Brazilian electricity demand and 90% of Paraguayan electricity consumption over the last 10 years. Facing growing concern about the impacts of human activity on the climate, the 2.9 billion megawatts-hour generated since the beginning of operation are an important clean energy contribution to the planet.

The positive impacts of this binational venture go way beyond the energy sector, however: it has also had an outstanding role in the socioeconomic development of the region, both during construction and operation.

Brazil’s Ministry of External Relations (Ministério das Relações Exteriores/MRE) and Ministry of Mines and Energy (Ministério de Minas e Energia/MME) celebrate the success of the 50-year-old project and its financial engineering – which now inaugurate a new phase for the company as well as its consumers.