Milton Flavio Lecture and Landfill Site Visit

This week we went on two field trips. The first one on Tuesday was to the Sao Paulo state government building where we attended a lecture from Milton Flávio Marques Lautenschlager, the sub-secretary of renewable energy. He is a medical doctor by training, a medical professor at a local university and is currently in charge of the implementation of renewable energies in Sao Paulo state. His presentation focused on Sao Paulo’s efforts to reach the proposed goals of the Paulista energy plan. Sao Paulo and Brazil’s renewable indexes are much higher compared to the rest of the world. As of 2009, they were 55.5% predominantly from biomass and 65% predominantly from hydroelectricity respectively, whereas the world index was 12.5%. The plan intends to further Brazil’s efforts: a reduction in carbon emissions of 20% and an increase in reliance on alternative energies from 55% to 69% by 2020. As of yet, hydroelectricity has been one of the most important sources of energy in Sao Paulo but it's potential has maxed out. Now the main focus is the expansion and development of other forms of renewables, such as solar, wind, and biofuels. One of the ways he intends to increase ethanol reliance is to better utilize the three components of the sugar cane plant; the dendrites, chaff/straw, and the vinhaca. Solar power has yet to be tapped to its fullest potential. Sao Paulo’s current solar power installed capacity equivalent to that of Germany. There will be a significant rise in solar with the Paulista energy plan. One of the ways the plan intends on cutting emissions by 20% is by addressing the transportation and industry sectors, which as of now contribute to 87% of the state's carbon emissions.

The sub-secretary emphasized that Sao Paulo is the economic locomotive of Brazil, generating 1/3 of the country's GDP. Because of this role, there is pressure for Sao Paulo to meet energy goals while meeting consumption levels, which are expected to rise.

We made it onto the Sao Paulo Energy website!

http://www.energia.sp.gov.br/lenoticia.php?id=530

The second field trip was to the EcoUrbis landfill, located 2 hours outside of Sao Paulo. The site was particularly odorous the day we went because of the rain. The site stores waste in layers divided by a high-pressure tolerant plastic to avoid leakage. The methane that is emitted by the heat and pressure of the trash is collected, processed and sold as fuel. We were then taken to a neighboring landfill, the Sao Joao landfill. This site reached its waste capacity in 2008 and rather than selling the fuel, the landfill produces electricity on site. Their 16 generators produce 175 MWh of energy per plant per year.

 

Trip to the market

On Monday, we went to a market in the center of the city to explore the various exotic fruits and vegetables. I made sure to try every fruit that was new to me at every vendor we passed. Although I was tempted to buy everything that I tried, I restrained myself. The following pictures are of all of the foods my group explored.

 Atemoia-Sugar Apple
 These had sort of a grainy texture but they were good, I probably tried them more than any other fruit.

 Acerola-West Indian Cherry

 Lichia Rambuta-Lychee Rambuta
These strange fruits of asian origin were delicious and had a gellatinous texture

 Our TA Christian eating Lichia Rambuta

 Mangostim-Purple Mangosteen
I had already tried this fruit in the US, for I learned at fat camp that they are extremely high in antioxidents and used in chinese medicine for cancer prevention. It is extremely scarce and expensive in the US, costing $US 40 for one jar of juice.

 Figos roxos-Purple Figs
Figs are awesome! Especially when paired with goat cheese and caramelized walnuts. I prefer dried mission figs to fresh figs.

 Nesperas-Loquat

 Tamaras- dates.
One of the vendors offered christian, gabby, jared and I a combo of strawberries and dates. It was an unexpected but delicious combination. Christian and I bought some dates and strawberries together but it was expensive!

 Jabuticaba-Same in English
These fruits were bizarre, they have a firm feel but when you bite into it, the gelatinous juice explodes into your mouth and it was gross. I had to spit it out.  

 Pitaya-Columbian Pitaya

 This mortadilla sandwich is the upgraded bologna sandwich of Brazil. It was delicious but heavy.

 Caju-Cashew (The fruit not the nut)
 The cashews on top are giant!

Some random pictures of fish found in the market.

It was a fun day at the market! I ended up buying salmon, a baby pineapple, strawberries, dates, mortadella, chocolate strawberries and some weird coconut dessert.

Hydroelectric Plant Site Visit

Our last site visit for the week was at a hydroelectric plant in a remote coast side area outside of the city. A Canadian company with the help of an American engineer constructed the plant in the 1920s. The Tiete River powers the plant. The height of the river creates higher potential energy, and therefore the plant utilizes less water than other hydroelectric plants to produce energy. The water is held in a reservoir and then released and pressurized to spin the turbines and produce energy. After the water flows through the plant, it continues outward along its natural path. We were shown turbines in the factory and underground. We had to wear a lot of protective gear: glasses, a helmet, earplugs, and they made me change out of my flip-flops into disgusting itchy boots! Hydroelectricity is the main alternative energy industry of Brazil. 

 Picture of exterior of factory

 Picture of the Tiete River

 Picture of the turbine

There are both benefits and costs derived by hydroelectricity, and it is up to the state to determine the best source of energy with the resources at their disposal. The external costs are lower than any other electrical channel. Life cycle superiority: lowest greenhouse gases, and sulfur dioxide emissions. Run of river facilities use the second smallest amount of land after nuclear. Feasible for the rest of the world, especially where there are still hundreds of millions without electricity. Wind, solar and nuclear cant meet such needs and since we need to wean off of fossil fuels, hydroelectricity is our best option. However it is only projected to grow at 2% per year because investors are reluctant to provide the large upfront cost.

Conference Site Visit

The next day was an energy conference, where several different alternative energy companies from all around the world gathered to educate potential investors on their respective products. A huge issue with alternative energies is gathering the funds to produce it at a large scale. I noticed that there were an overwhelmingly large amount of small solar companies. Making solar technologies entails many steps: since the solar market is not big enough to have a solar company specialize in one step of the procedure, you see many companies doing all of the steps themselves on a small scale. This is not efficient.  I believe if some of these companies were to merge and utilize each other’s resources, the companies would establish themselves as a larger force in renewables, the solar market would expand, and greenhouse emissions will be reduced. My favorite exhibit was Cinesolar, a cinema project that utilizes clean and renewable energies. It is a van that is run on solar power and provides power to all of the film equipment, including the speakers and projector. This van roams around the country exhibiting films. I believe that a similar project to this would be successful in the United States and help spread awareness about renewable technology. It was really interesting to see the different solar technologies that could eventually be implemented in the home, such as rooftop panels and water heating systems. It seems promising and exciting and I can’t wait to see such technology be implemented where I live and around the globe.

Bosch Site Visit

After the site visit to CPFL, we had lunch and then went to Bosch, an international company that specializes in a wide variety of subjects, from antilock breaking systems, to security systems, to power tools. However, what we were most interested in was their flux fuel engines. I have a cousin who is a car fanatic who had previously talked at me about flux fuel engines: I had toned him out because he always talked incessantly about cars. I was pleasantly surprised and fascinated by the Bosch engine and facilities. We were first given a tour of the laboratory and were then given a talk on their company and the specifics of flex engines. They showed us a cold room, a heat room and a wind resistant room, which are three tests that they give to calibrate their engines so they can withstand a wide range of temperature and climate. Flux fuel engines are engines that can run on a mixture of mostly ethanol and gasoline to help burn the fuel because ethanol has a higher flash point. A higher ethanol percentage in the fuel mixture is preferable because it produces fewer greenhouse emissions and is cheaper to produce. However, there are certain drawbacks of ethanol to take into account. The fuel is less efficient than normal gasoline, which means less distance for same amount of fuel and consequently a more frequent need to fill up. Also, Brazil uses sugarcane for their ethanol while the US uses corn. The fuel production takes up fertile land that would otherwise be used for food production. Also, in the United States, the greenhouse gases emitted by producing the fuel outweigh those saved by ethanol. In Brazil, the greenhouse savings outweigh the emissions needed to produce the ethanol, which makes it a much more viable option environmentally. Eighty percent of all new cars in Brazil now come equipped with a fuel flux engine. In the United States, 2/3 of the drivers that have flux fuel engines don’t know that they have them. Had it not been for my cousin, I would not have known about them either. The technology has yet to be marketed in the US, even though it could save the individual on fuel economy. I believe the stark contrast is because ethanol is much more prevalent in Brazilian gas stations than in the US. Perhaps if ethanol were more prevalent, fuel flux engines would be a more marketable selling point when buying a new car.

CPFL Solar Plant Site Visit

The first field trip we went on was to a renewable energy company called CPFL energy, which distributes as of last year 40,645 GWh of energy annually to approximately 7.2 million consumers primarily in the Brazilian states of Sao Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul. CPFL produces predominantly solar based energy, although they are currently developing wind energy and thermoelectric biomass technologies to complement their solar production. Brazil is an ideal country for solar power implementation. This is because in the majority of the country not covered by the amazon, the mean annual global horizontal irradiation (GHI) is very high, especially on the coast, which coincidentally is where CPFL’s plant is located. The United States does not have as much solar potential, as our GHI countrywide is very inconsistent. In transporting solar energy from areas of high GHI around the country, you lose energy. Solar technology is expensive to develop and implement, so further research is needed to figure out how to lower the cost of fabricating the panels, how to minimize energy loss in transport, or how to better utilize radiation in areas of low GHI.  These advancements would make solar more economically worthwhile in the United States. 

CPFL’s energy output may seem immense, but I wonder what percentage of these consumers total energy consumption is satisfied by solar. I recently read that in Peru, there is a solar commission to provide free solar energy to 2 million of the poorest citizens in the country. However, this energy is not available all of the time. This made me question to whom exactly does CPFL’s energy go, if there exists a similar initiative in Brazil to that of Peru and if so, what is the availability of this energy.

Our visit started at their corporate office where we were educated on their company history and solar power. There are two types of solar power that the company has implemented and continues to develop: static panels and panels that adjust every five minutes to the angle of the sun. These panels are made from polycrystalline or amorphous silica and are arranged in arrays to maximize surface area exposure to the sun’s radiation. After watching Gasland and seeing the damaging and obstructive affects of hydraulic fracking stations, the solar panels seemed almost natural. In the surrounding areas plants and animals flourish, which reminded me of how clean and viable a source of energy solar is for the environment. The guide then took us inside of the plant, which was notably small; to show us how much energy the panels were receiving and subsequently producing. CPFL company stocks have been steadily on the rise in the past several years and they show potential to be the energy market leaders in Brazil according to their annual report. 

Your land, My land, Gasland

Gasland (2010) is a documentary on the devastating social and environmental impacts of hydraulic fracking, the process of collecting gas by fracturing the rocks that trap the gases underground with a pressurized liquid. The film made me contemplate the following question, which I propose to you as food for thought. The movie link is posted below.

What is the agricultural impact of fracking? In farms in areas affected by fracking that ship food across the country, are FDA regulations in place to ensure safe and clean water for the food? If so, are these regulations being enforced?

Should law require transparency of the identity of fracking compounds, despite the disclosure laws that protect oil and gas company trade secrets? If chemicals are found that are know to be disease causing, should said companies be held accountable for the medical and relocation expenses of those affected?

How do the economic benefits of fracking compare to the economic consequences of a devastated environment in the short term? In the long term?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJyZhZcQOLI

What I learned from class

In the United States, there is an increased domestication of fossil fuels. Imports have declined and production has increased. This is because the US is attempting to use up our fuel reserves while investing in green technologies. Under the Obama administration, they have been committed to renewable energy sources. During Obama’s first term, he was able to double the generation of renewable energy, which he intends to double once again by 2020. His administration’s climate action plan facilitates clean energy permitting on public land so more renewable infrastructure can be created. A further investment in green energies is a good economic investment for the American people, as it will create thousands of jobs. Obama intends to keep America as one of the leaders in this emerging field with the new policies he is proposing. Through leadership in the field, his administration intends to initiate an international discussion on how to best combat the climate issues we face. An effort will be made to privatize alternate energy investment so government resources can focus on other societal issues. 

Brazil differs from America for they have an abundance of renewable energy sources, while we are slowly attempting to more away from more harmful fuel sources. Brazil has a multitude of renewable resources in use, including wind (PROINFA), solar and bioenergy. The energy production by these sources has been dwarfed in recent years by an increased use of nonrenewable , such as petroleum and natural gas. Renewables create jobs and stimulate the economic and social growth of the poorer areas of the country. Brazil has a very effective ethanol fuel program based off of sugar cane and corn. At the moment in Brazil, a lot of the energy investment comes from the public sector, which takes resources away from other critical areas. The policies proposed will decrease total investment in renewable technologies to incentivize the private sector and state owned companies. A recent increase in imports of energy, mainly petroleum, harms the Brazilian currency and trade. A reduction of aforementioned imports can provide more jobs and stabilize the economy. PROCEL is a program designed to conserve Brazilian energy, which has been relatively successful; however, a further increase in efficiency of energy use could aid the individual’s economy and help society by reducing risk of energy shortages. As of 1999, a large portion of the Brazilian population still did not have household electricity. Increased access can change social and regional inequality in poorer areas and prevent deforestation. Brazil has been experiencing years of an unstable economy and inflation making many of these goals difficult to obtain.

Power Surge!

In the documentary, Power Surge, they propose a simplified way of looking at cutting carbon emissions. The wedge game, as they call it, is an analysis of the area between our current projected path of carbon emissions over the next fifty years and if our carbon emissions were to plateau. The resulting figure resembles a triangle or a wedge. The movie estimates that annually, the carbon emissions to be equal to seven billion tons. The wedge theory divides these tons into seven equal parts and analyzes what can be done to cut one seventh of our total emissions over the given time period. There are 15 existing technologies in the marketplace at an industrial scale that could each cut emissions by approximately 1 billion tons over the next 50 years, or one seventh of the wedge.

There are four different categories of wedges, the yellow represents a tripling of nuclear over the next 50 years, the green represents increased energy efficiency, which is the easiest and cheapest route, the red represents solar energies and the blue represents clean coal innovation and burying their emissions. The game is played by taking the 15 existing wedges and figuring out which seven wedges combined could most efficiently plateau our carbon emissions. The documentary has gathered several experts from many different fields to speak on the plausible solutions that could cut one seventh of the problem.

The blue wedge, or carbon capture technology based off the way plants take emissions out of atmosphere. The blue wedge also includes cleaning up coal would be ideal because there is already so much infrastructures in place than can be improved upon. This is being done on a massive scale in factories burying carbon emissions a mile under the ground. The red wedge, solar power, is a very promising option, for 100 terawatts hit the earth every year and as a globe we only use 17 terawatts. The documentary refers to biofuels as solar power, for the plants obtain their energy from the sun. The green wedge, or efficiency, will not only reduce emissions, but also save a ton of money on energy bills. Nuclear, or the yellow wedge, has been standardized over the years to make them safer.

I do agree with their assessment of how to solve the problem. There is not one sole solution to the stabilization of carbon. By the end of the century, the population along with energy need is expected to triple. A combination of solutions will help us wean off our old inefficient energy habits while meeting the increased energy needs of the future.

Not all of the solutions address the effects of the environment, society and economy when they consider what alternative energies to use. When the gas is forced a mile underground into porous rock and changes the topography of the surrounding area, the impact of the changing landscape on the local environment is not discussed in depth, although the documentary does recognize it as an expensive route to complete 1/7 of the puzzle. The economic plausibility of a large-scale carbon capture technology is not discussed. The economic feasibility of solar is discussed, the issue is to make photovoltaic less expensive. The plant biology of fermenting yeast is not financially feasible. However, it would be highly adaptable to current infrastructure. The social aspect of where exactly all of these projects would be located is not discussed. The societal risk of nuclear is talked about in a vague sense, presented as the lesser of two evils. Fukashima did not discourage the nuclear advocate in the documentary: he refers to the pros and cons without specifically mentioning them.

Uma Verdade Incoveniente

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An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

 http://documentarylovers.com/an-inconvenient-truth/

Based on the video; please answer the questions below in thoughtful and complete sentences.

1.     What image started the modern day environmental movement?

The image was taken of earth from space on the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. It was referred to as earth rise and 18 months after its publication, the modern say environmental movement started.

2.     What is considered the most vulnerable part of the earth system?

The atmosphere is considered the most vulnerable part of the earth system because it is so thin.

3.     Relatively speaking, compared to the earth, how thick is the atmosphere?

The thickness of the atmosphere is comparable to a thin varnish over a globe. It is so thin, in fact, that it’s composition is vulnerable to change.

4.     How can trapping infrared radiation by the earth’s atmosphere be a GOOD thing?

Trapping infrared radiation can be a good thing because it keeps the earth within certain temperature bounds, relatively constant and livable.

5.     How can trapping infrared radiation by the earth’s atmosphere be a BAD thing?

Trapping infrared radiation can be a bad thing because it consequently causes the atmosphere to heat up worldwide, hence global warming.

6.      What percentage of people depend on glacial melt for their drinking water?

40% of the world’s population receives their drinking water from rivers and streams that come from glacial melt. They will inevitably face a severe shortage in the near future.

7.     Why is studying ice cores important?

When the snowfalls in a glacial ice core, it traps bubbles of atmosphere, which allow the measurement of CO2 levels in the atmosphere the year that bubble was trapped and over thousands of years. Equally important is that they can measure the different isotopes of oxygen the same year that bubble was trapped to create a precise thermometer for that year and over thousands of years.

8.     What is the relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) and atmospheric temperature?

When there is more carbon dioxide, it gets warmer because it traps more heat from the sun.

9.     Over what time period have the hottest 10 years on earth occurred?

The ten hottest days on record have occurred in the last 14 years, the hottest year was the year in which this documentary was recorded. The temperature change is happening all over the world, including the oceans.

10.  As the water temperature under a hurricane increases, what happens to the wind velocity of the

storm?

As the water temperature under a hurricane increases, the wind velocity and moisture content increases. Consequently, the energy of the hurricane then increases, resulting in larger and stronger storms.

11.  What has happened to Lake Chad over the years?

Lake Chad was one of the largest lakes in the world in Northern Africa, specifically in Darfur and Niger, which over the last few decades has dried up completely.

12.  How much of the suns radiation gets reflected by ice?

More than 90% of the suns radiation is reflected back into space, like a mirror. However, when it hits the water surrounding the ice, 90% of it is absorbed, which warms the water, causing the ice to melt. The ice caps are necessary because by reflecting the sunrays back into space, it keeps the earth cooler. There is a faster buildup of heat in the artic ocean more than anywhere else on the planet.

13.  What redistributes energy from the equator to the north and south poles?

Energy is redistributed from the equator to the north and south poles by means of ocean and wind currents. These currents have been relatively stable until now, but with the increase in ocean temperature, they are subject to change.

14.   If the ice sheets of Western Antarctica were to melt, approximately how much would sea level

rise?

If the ice sheets of Western Antartica were to melt, the sea level would rise approximately 20 feet. The same would occur if the ice sheets of Greenland were to melt.

15.  List the three factors causing the collision between civilization and earth

1. The scientific and technological revolution paired with old habits. Larger than the human scale, which is a political issue.

2.  Population is increasingly extremely rapidly.

3. Exploitation of the earth and natural resources for sustenance.

16. Approximately, what percentages of global carbon dioxide emissions come from forest fires?

Almost 30% of global carbon dioxide emissions come from forest fires.

17. What country is the largest contributor of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere?

The United States is the largest contributor of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

18. Which country has the lowest government standards for gas mileage of automobiles?

The United States has the lowest government standards for gas mileage for automobiles. California has taken the initiative to increase their stanards for gas mileage, which has led to them being sued by the American automobile companies to prevent competition from foreign competitors with higher standards for gas mileage.

19. Which two nations have not signed onto the Kyoto Protocol?

As of 2006, the United States and Australia have been the sole two nations in the developed world to abstain from the Kyoto Protocol.