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The plant caused flooding of over 5,000 km 2 (1,900 sq mi), which damaged the habitats of many [quantify] animals, disrupted caribou migratory routes, and drowned wildlife such as beavers. [21] Furthermore, Innu burial sites and hunting grounds were destroyed, causing irreparable damage to the traditions and livelihoods of the Innu people. [ 22 ]
Hydropower technology and attitude began to shift in the second half of the 20th century. While countries had largely abandoned their small hydropower systems by the 1930s, the smaller hydropower plants began to make a comeback in the 1970s, boosted by government subsidies and a push for more independent energy producers. [56]
The Report of the World Commission on Dams also includes in the "large" category, dams which are between 5 and 15 m (16 and 49 ft) high with a reservoir capacity of more than 3 million cubic metres (2,400 acre⋅ft). [45] Hydropower dams can be classified as either "high-head" (greater than 30 m in height) or "low-head" (less than 30 m in height).
Hoover Dam's initial 1,345 MW power station was the world's largest hydroelectric power station in 1936; it was eclipsed by the 6,809 MW Grand Coulee Dam in 1942. [20] The Itaipu Dam opened in 1984 in South America as the largest, producing 14 GW , but was surpassed in 2008 by the Three Gorges Dam in China at 22.5 GW .
Previous upstream dams and reservoirs were part of the 1980s James Bay Project. There are also small and somewhat-mobile forms of a run-of-the-river power plants. One example is the so-called electricity buoy, a small floating hydroelectric power plant. Like most buoys, it is anchored to the ground, in this case in a river.
The dam is 660 feet (200 m) long, 300 feet (91 m) high and was built between 1924 and 1927. The dam includes three conventional hydroelectric generating units totaling 32 megawatts (MW) and a pumped-storage unit with a capacity of 97 MW. The dam and associated infrastructure were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.
Overall, hydroelectric power can be less expensive than electricity generated from fossil fuels or nuclear energy, and areas with abundant hydroelectric power attract industry. However, in addition to the advantages above, there are several disadvantages to dams that create large reservoirs .
At the time it was the fourth largest dam and the largest power dam in the world. The dam is constructed of concrete and granite quarried nearby– a rubble core with trimmed blocks on the surface. Up to 280,000 cubic yards (210,000 m 3 ) of rock and dirt were moved during construction.