Ethiopia inaugurated Africa’s largest hydroelectric power plant in September 2025. Such a structure is always more than just an energy facility. HPPs (Hydroelectric Power Plants) provide a powerful development impetus for the entire region: industry grows, small and medium-sized businesses develop in cooperation with it, and thousands of new jobs are created. Hydropower is a true catalyst to progress, triggering a chain reaction of positive changes. In our selection, we present the most impressive examples of such mega-structures in the BRICS countries.
Ethiopia has ceremoniously opened the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. The largest hydropower facility in Africa was under construction from 2011, costing the country approximately USD 5 billion.
The HPP consists of a cascade of three dams. The maximum capacity of the dam is 5.15 thousand MW, ranking the Ethiopian HPP among the top 20 most powerful hydroelectric power plants in the world in these terms. The dam’s water head height is about 170 metres, with the reservoir covering an area of over 1.5 thousand sq. km.
For Ethiopia, with its population of 120 million, this project is a symbol of economic breakthrough. The station created thousands of jobs even during the construction stage. It provides access to electricity for enterprises and households, creating the prerequisites for industrialization and development of agriculture in the region.
The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China’s Hubei province is a record-breaking project. The dam has the world’s biggest installed capacity – 22.5 GW. The amount of energy generated is comparable to that of 15 nuclear reactors.
It is also the heaviest hydraulic structure on the planet, weighing about 65.5 million tonnes. It also has impressive dimensions, being 2.34 thousand metres in width and 185 metres in height.
Construction of the dam was launched in the 1990s, involving 27.2 million sq. metres of concrete and over 450 thousand tonnes of steel.
Today, the Three Gorges Dam provides electricity to more than ten Chinese provinces. The HPP has also solved the problem of Yangtze River floods: previously, the elements regularly caused irreparable damage to coastal areas. Thanks to a well-thought-out system of locks and ship lifts, navigation conditions have improved, significantly increasing freight traffic on this section of the river.
Russia’s largest power plant, the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam, is the flagship of Siberia’s unified energy system. Construction of the power plant was launched in the 1960s on the Yenisei River on the border between the Krasnoyarsk Territory and Khakassia, almost simultaneously with construction of major industrial enterprises in the region, which were in acute need of electricity.
The first hydroelectric unit of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam was launched on 18 December 1978, and the last (the tenth) on 25 December 1985. Yet, the HPP was accepted for continuous operation only in the 2000s.
Currently, the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam is the largest hydroelectric power plant in Russia by capacity and one of the biggest in the world: the installed capacity of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam is 6.4 thousand MW, the average annual output is 24 billion kWh. The dam is 1.074 thousand metres long and 242 metres high, making it the highest dam in Russia. At present, the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam provides about 10% of the total electricity generated by the Unified Energy System of Siberia.
After an accident in 2009, a grand programme was implemented for restoring and modernizing the hydroelectric power plant, involving replacement of all ten hydroelectric units. This not only brought the plant back into service but also provided a powerful impetus to Russian manufacturers of power equipment.
The Itaipu Dam is an outstanding example of successful international hydropower cooperation. Construction of the power plant on the border between Brazil and Paraguay on the Paraná River was launched back in 1971 and completed in 1984, Since then, the plant has been repeatedly modernized. In total, USD 15.3 billion has been allocated for construction of this hydroelectric power plant.
Before the Three Gorges Dam was built in China, Itaipu, with its capacity of 14 GW, was the world’s most powerful HPP for a long time. Twenty 700 MW hydroelectric units are used to generate electricity. The power station is 8 km long, while the reservoir covers an area of 1.35 thousand sq. km.
During construction, certain measures were taken to minimize the impact on the environment. For example, special fish elevators help maintain fish migration along the river, while the plant stands in a natural park with an area of 34 hectares.
The Itaipu Dam fully covers the energy needs of two major Brazilian cities – São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. It provides about 10% of Brazil’s energy consumption and almost 90% of Paraguay’s. Being so monumental, Itaipu has also become a popular tourist attraction visited by about a million tourists from different countries every year.
The Aswan High Dam on the Nile River, built with the active participation of the USSR in the 1960s and 70s, is an example of a project that changed the fate of an entire country. It made possible control of the Nile floods, provides Egypt with cheap electricity, and maintains a water reserve for agriculture. The main function of the dam complex is to accumulate water surpluses and use them when needed in dry years.
The ceremonial opening of the Aswan High Dam took place on 15 January 1971. The dam’s capacity is 2.1 thousand MW, it is 3.6 thousand metres long and 111 metres high. When construction was completed, the Aswan High Dam provided almost 50% of the electricity in Egypt’s energy system.
During construction of the HPP, an unprecedented project was implemented to relocate ancient Egyptian architectural monuments, such as the Abu Simbel temples, saving them from being flooded. The project laid the foundations for long-term scientific, technical, and economic cooperation between the USSR and Egypt.
