Day 11

Day 11, let’s go learn about power. First we’re off to Sao Miguel do Iguacu. The Fazenda Colombari plant is a massive milk producer for Southern Brazil and home to hundreds of cows. Now the employees at Fazenda Colombari were very clever and put the infrastructure in place to collect all of the waste from these cows, create a mixture that would be easy to pump a few hundred yards, construct a bio-digester to produce methane gas, and use it to drive a gas engine and generator. We were able to tour the facilities supporting the main functions of the plant and get a full grasp of the day to day work of the employees aside from bio-energy. Fun fact: they play music for the cows while milking to reduce stress.

In the shelters to keep the cows when not milking, two massive automatic pulleys will drag a makeshift rake to collect cow waste. All of the waste is collected underground and mixed with water then pumped to the bio-digesters without being even slightly detectable. The digester can be seen below and is a massive structure. While there is currently more waste than the two bio-digesters can support, a third is too expensive to install. This is likely the next step for the facility as waste increases, however.

 

As mentioned, the gas inside that balloon is used to drive a gas engine and generator to produce power for the plant. Now I had a very difficult time attempting to understand exactly how much power can be produced relative to what the facility consumes, but I do believe it was significant. Now in the rare event that the plant was able to produce more than it needed, unfortunately they are so isolated that it is very unlikely they would have a customer to sell power to.

Have you ever seen 14 GW of power generation? I’m not sure if I want to even make an effort to describe what the Itaipu is like. Everything about this thirty year old dam is simply astonishing to look at. We left our cows at Fazenda and went to Itaipu for lunch. It doesn’t seem like a hydroelectric plant should be a tourist attraction, but when you have the largest electricity producing plant in the world, you show it off. We were lucky enough to have a guided tour around the plant on a bus and saw the plant at a tremendous level of detail. First an overview of the output canal and spillway put into perspective how bad Brazil’s current drought is. In comparison to the pictures, the water level was very low on the post-generation side. Next, we were able to view the unbelievably vast reservoir. You’ll assume it’s a great lake if you walk up to it. Moving on, we went down to the face of the retaining wall. The structure is simply gargantuan, with each pipe feeding a turbine coming in at 30 meters wide. You could hide a skyscraper in this place if you wanted to. Vertically or horizontally.

 

Let’s go see where they put the EE guys like myself. Now the name of the room escapes me, but to manage the grid for this kind of power generation a great deal of monitoring and coordination. Because the dam is shared between two nations, both have a representative for each control room. Here specifically, we discussed how Paraguay and Brazil have grids that operate on different frequencies (50 Hz and 60 Hz, respectively) and as a result, the power sold from Paraguay to Brazil is sent as DC all the way to Sao Paulo rather than inverting in Iguazu. Fascinating, isn’t it? I’m glad you’re as excited as I am about frequency.

We weren’t finished however. We took a quick break in the lobby then went to the control room. The control room, which just happens to be the border of the two nations, is huge to accommodate both sides. They have both analog and digital control systems available, as they intend to use digital, but keep the analog system as a backup. Last, but not least, we make it to one of the 18 turbines in operation. Imagine a circular elevator rotating at a few thousand rpm. The scale, like everything else, is startling. We only had a few more minutes to stand in awe at this one of a kind plant before heading out so I made sure to get a few more pictures for you. I hope you’ll enjoy them.

Following the visit, there was only one thing to do: visit a Buddhist temple. We spent the last hour before sunset in the most peaceful environment in Iguazu. From the temple we had great views of Iguazu, and Ciudad del Este across the river. A very cool way to wrap up the evening and begin bringing the trip to a close.