Today was marked by two extremely different activities. For most of the day, we were allowed to explore Floripa on our own, but after 5 pm, we were given the opportunity to be learn about the state of energy in Brazil from one of UNISUL's professors, Dr. Baltazar Guerra.

During our free time, we explored a Avenida das Rendeiras, a quaint street along the coast of the Lagoa da Conceição. From there we were able to buy some souvenirs, climb some dunes, and grab a hearty Brazilian-style buffet lunch. And we went paddle-boarding too on the lake [I'll have to upload those pictures as soon as I get copies]. All in, we spent about four hours on that part of the island.

View of the sand dunes. Avenida das Rendeiras is about 20 feet behind where this picture was taken. 

Street graffiti/ mural along a Avenida das Rendeiras

Lagoa da Conceição

When we returned to the main part of Florianópolis, Dina took us to the Campus Universitário da Grande Florianópolis (UNISUL) to attend a lecture on the state of Brazilian energy. The main speaker was Dr. Baltazar Guerra (full name José Baltazar Salgueirinho Osório Andrade Guerra, PhD), a professor of international relations whose work with the REGSA, a multinational project aimed at bringing sustainable energy to places which recently had zero access to a stable energy grid. The purpose of this lecture however, was the issues surrounding energy generation today, and how they will be compounded in the coming decades as the global population pushes towards 9 or 10 billion people.

A significant percentage of this population growth comes from China and India. Each of these countries are frightening for different reasons. China's population boom threatens the Earth because its government never signed the Kyoto Protocol. Basically, China has no incentive to minimize carbon dioxide emissions, instead choosing cheap, yet dirty burning coal and gas to power its emergence as a global superpower. India's size is scary for a different reason though. A large portion of India's 1.2 billion people do not have access to electricity. What will happen in the coming decades as a larger percentage of Indians gain access to electricty? There is no source for this energy in place today, and engineers will either have to find sources, or subject a significant portion of the human population to blackouts.

Is hydro-power a clean energy source? Hydro-power is a renewable method of energy generation, but this does not make it clean, and it certainly has its drawbacks. When a dam is erected and an area flooded, this creates many environmental concerns. The water destroys ecosystems, forcing animals to adapt, migrate, or die. The new lake occupies land which may be suited to better uses, like growing crops for food, materials, or energy production (using biomass fuels like ethanol). Additionally, as the water rises, tons and tons of vegetation is killed, and this decomposing mass slowly releases huge amounts of methane into the air, contributing to global climate change. Brazil is the place to study the effects of hydroelectric generation, as over 65% of the energy used in Brazil in 2014 came from hydro-power stations. We'll learn more about hydro-power next week though, when we visit Itaipu Dam in Paraná.

*note. It's late, I'm sleepy, and there's many more pictures to upload. I'll update this post when we get more reliable wifi

Looking up at one of the Wind Turbines operated by Ventos do Sul

July 29 -- Ventos do Sul Wind Farm visit

Site Description
The wind farm at Osório stretches 13 km long by 7 km wide (approximately 9000 hectares) with 148 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 2.3 MW. Our tour started with a visit to the substation control room, continued with a coffee break and a presentation about the companies involved, and concluded with us going to the base of one of the turbine towers.
Last year, Ventos do Sul produced enough energy to power 450,000 Brazilian homes, or approximately 1.5 million people. 60% of this production occurred in September, October, November, and April, with a significant drop off during the summer and winter months. The site only produces energy for 50% of the year. This may not sound great, but the typical wind farm in the United States is producing energy only about 30% of the time. This higher efficiency can be attributed to two things: great site selection, and smart turbine designs. Osório is a great location for a wind farm because it is flat and exposed on three sides with a mountainous backdrop to the West. The winds typically flow from the Northeast, reducing the amount of movement the turbines need in a given day. Also, each turbine is equipped with an anemometer and a built in computer which will tell the turbine when to turn on or off and the ideal orientation for the head to be pointed.

Ventos do Sul owns 172 turbines spread over 6 farms, accounting for a 375 MW capacity

How the turbines work
Basically, a turbine works like a box fan, just in reverse. Whereas a fan uses energy to turn blades to make wind, a turbine uses wind to turn blades to make usable energy. The turbines used by Ventos do Sul are 110 m tall (from the base to the top of the blade diameter) and utilize 35m long blades. These turbines operate at  windspeeds from 2.5 m/s up the 25 m/s (6 mph to 55 mph). Too little wind, and the blades won't turn. Too much wind and the internal mechanism can not keep up with the blades. The turbines at Osório are most efficient in wind speeds around 11-12 m/s. This large range of operational speeds is due to Ventos do Sul's use of newer turbine models. Designed by German engineers, these turbine use a direct drive system in the turbine head, getting rid of internal gears featured in previous models and simplifying the entire process.

Diagram snagged from Ventos do Sul's on-site learning center

Environmental Concerns
In previous wind turbine designs, a large concern for widespread use of wind power was the turbines' impact on bird flight paths. The turbines in Osório utilize longer blades with a much slower rotational speed, making the blades easier for birds to avoid. Additionally, the birds of the region tend to stay below 30m in elevation, 10-15 meters below the lowest point in the blade path. An environmental impact study concluded that between 2006 and 2014, the turbines at Osório were responsible for less than 0.5 bird collisions per turbine per year.
Another advantage to the newer turbine design is a significant noise reduction per turbine. These turbines were nearly silent -- we couldn't here them even when we were at the base of one of the towers. The lack of noise pollution allows local landowner to continue to use most of the land around the towers for regular farming operations. The wind farm at Osório was covered in livestock, rice paddies, and fishing ponds; only 3% of the land here was used for wind turbines.
During construction of the first turbines at Osório in 2006, Ventos do Sul performed a life-cycle assessment of the structures being constructed. This assessment included construction, 30 years of operation, and demolition. The researchers found that, when compared to conventional methods of energy production (i.e. fossil fuels), the wind farm actually has a positive carbon footprint, with the same contribution as taking 536,000 barrels of oil out of use per year. The company representative did not say whether this life-cycle assessment also included the embodied carbon of the steel or concrete used in the turbines.

97% of the land at the Osório Wind farm is used by local farmers for livestock grazing and rice farming.

Company Profile
Ventos do Sol is owned and operated by Enerfín, which is the renewable energy division of Elecnor, a Global leader in energy infrastructure concessions and construction. A concession company is one that makes money by owning and maintaining projects for a set length of time (20-30 years in Elecnor's case), and then reaping the benefits once the contract is completed. Enerf[i]n controls a global capacity of 2315 MW in wind generation, and has sites in Spain, Brazil, and the United States [and one more... look this up]. This amounts to approximated $500 million (US) in operational wind farms.
Moving forward, Ventos do Sul plans to expand their capacity, with 188 MW worth of turbine's to be installed in the coming years. As far as constructability is concerned, Ventos do Sul was able to build 75 turbines in the first 15 months of operation (approximately 1 turbine per week). After they gained some experience, Ventos do Sul was able to increase that efficiency to almost 3 turbines per week during their last major construction phase, in 2014.

The annual capacity maintained by Ventos do Sul is equivalent to removing 160 thousand cars from the road.

July 28
Tractebel Energia visit

Today was the first real day of our trip. Dina handed us off to Roderigo, another ISA representative, and sent us on our way, leaving the hotel by 9:30 this morning. After driving for about three hours (mais ou menos, I felt asleep and didn't really look at the clock) our bus arrived in Capivari de Baixo, home to the Jorge Lacerda Thermoelectric Complex, a power station managed by Tractebel Energia, a Brazilian firm under the global energy company GDF Suez. Prior to eating lunch, we were given a short tour of Capivari de Baixo's environmental park. This area was once a dump-site for charcoal, ash, and other waste kicked out by burning fossil fuels. Tractebel paid for the rehabilitation of the site, cleaning the soil and planting almost 35,000 trees. This 50-acre park contains 3.5 km of walking trails, a 380 seat theatre, a large playground for children, and a classroom, all free for the community of Capivari de Baixo. Some of the history of the power plant is preserved in this park, as old plant components, made obsolete when Brazil standardized its electrical grid to operate at 60 Hz, are displayed at the park's entrance.

Before we went into the thermoelectric complex itself, we were given a tour of the site's research and development facility, where engineers from Tractebel partner with researchers from the Federal University of Santa Catarina to study sustainable energy technologies. This facility consists of a 3 MW capacity solar power plant and a 2.1 MW capacity wind turbine. This R&D venture has been in operation since 2013 and features 3 types of photovoltaic setups: 2 thin-film technologies and 1 crystalline silicon cell rig. Each type of photovoltaic cell has a capacity of 1 MW, however this capacity is really only reached at midday in the summer. The goal of this project is to determine which technology makes the most sense, from an economic and a power capacity viewpoint, for Tractebel Energia to invest in for the future. The engineers told us that so far the crystalline silicon technology is producing more power year round, but at a higher cost than either thin-film set-up. Moving forward, Tractebel plans to install a large photovoltaic based power plant in Northern Brazil, much closer to the equator and therefore exposed to significantly more solar radiance for the entire year.

Tractebel Energia's solar and wind power R&D field

A few things of note about Tractebel's solar power plant... The most efficient angle for a panel table to be incline is the angle of latitude for that area. For Tractebel, this angle is 28° , however this angle was reduced to 20° so that the shadow of one table won't interfere with the bottom of the table behind it. Secondly there are no batteries or any energy storage capacity at the site, so it can only contribute power to the grid when the weather is cooperating. Finally, the station manager, Fabian, said that by the summer, they will buy 2 sheep to keep the grass cut.

Fora do Complexo Termelétrico Jorge Lacerda

The final part of our tour took us to the control room for 2 of the coal-fired generators on the premise (there are 7 in total). The plants opened in 1979, and although the instruments and measurement devices have evolved over time, the basic crew remained the same: 6 workers to run a power plant -- 2 to read the panels, 2 to make split second decisions, and 2 workers to leave the room to investigate on-site issues. The control panel operator, Vilmar, spoke English well and explained the purpose of the instruments. He explained to us that a good deal of information about the boiler can be obtained using a microphone inside the tower. A working generator will sound a certain way, whereas a damaged boiler will emit a different sound. The microphone picks this up and lets the control room know that something is wrong so they can shut down the process for maintenance before any real damage can be done. Vilmar also confessed to us that one of his dreams was to talk about his job in English and was very enthusiastic to answer all of our questions. He even gave each of us a copy of his magazine "Bons e Novos" (Things good and new).

Last night we ate dinner in Florianópolis with Dina (pronounced like "Gina"), one of our ISA contacts. We went to a local Italian restaurant and tried a Brazilian take on Italian food. The custom at this restaurant (and many other places throughout Brazil, Dina tells us) is to order one entré for two people, and then split it. Dr. Abad and I split an order of Fettuccine Bolognese. After spending the last 2 days eating airport snacks and airline dinners, this dish was amazing. We did add a little Brazilian flair to the meal though, as Dina ordered an appetizer of polentas. These little biscuits are made from fried condensed cream. One of the classmates, Liz, told us that we have these in America, however they are made with cornmeal, not thickened cream. I wasn't a huge fan of the polentas (they were a bit too oily), but most everyone else at the table seemed to like them.

One thing too note about the dinner is that we ordered far too much food. This goes unnoticed in the United States, but the Brazilian culture advocates only ordering what you need, so as not too waste food. This prompted Dina to ask for the leftovers to be packaged up, with the intention of giving the leftovers to some of the people living on the streets.

Polentas [image via gwiv.com]

July 27, 2015
Here... We... Go...

I've been in airports for the past 24 hours, so this first post is going to be a couple different reactions all in one go.

Part 1... July 26
For the past two weeks, a significant percentage of conversations with family and friends have started with them asking me, "Are you excited?" or "Are you pumped?" and on one occasion, "Are you FREAKING OUT YET!?!?"

It didn't feel real to me until I went to sleep last night. So despite my previous responses over the last week or two, yes I'm excited, pumped, maybe even freaking out. Its a good thing.

I fly from Pittsburgh to Dallas, then overnight to São Paulo and then finally touch down in Florianópolis around 3:15 tomorrow afternoon.

I haven't even left Pittsburgh yet and this trip is already going great. On the way to my gate I stopped at a coffee cart for a bottle of water and maybe an iced coffee. As I set the bottle of water on the table, the barista asked me, "Do you like biscotti? What about free biscotti?" My answer to both questions was yes, but I only answered the latter. I was about to order an iced coffee on top of that, when the second barista asked, "Any chance you'd also want a free iced coffee? I messed up the last guy's order and had to redo it."

A medium iced coffee, biscotti, and a bottle of water for $2. I haven't even left Pittsburgh yet and I'm already having a solid trip.

Part 2... the plot thickens.

I'm writing this section from the São Paulo airport, waiting for the flight to Florianópolis. "Você fala Inglês" has been my catchphrase so far ("Do you speak English?"). The answers have been hit or miss -- a good deal of the Brazilians I've talked to speak English "so-so." To be fair, that is wayyy better than my Portuguese. I'll post more later, once we actually get out of the airports and into Brazil. Hopefully there will be pictures on the posts to come.