Day 7

Day 7 in beautiful Brasil and we have to drive a loooooong way to Curitiba. That means nap time for myself and most of the group. The great news is that the weather is getting better every day so we can nearly dust off the shorts and tees in the bottom of the suitcase.

Arrival in Curitiba means we’re off to get a little Brazilian culture. Specifically, we’re visiting the museum of the eye. Check it out:

Formally the Oscar Niemayer museum, the eye and its accompanying galleries are a constantly changing set of exhibits featuring architecture, design, and visual arts. Niemayer is the most famous architect in Brazilian history and believe me it shows. Mr. Niemayer was featured all over the museum and has an unbelievable collection of works. The eye you see above is blocking its entrance ramp, but it features a very signature piece of Niemayer’s design: a long, curved, sweeping white entrance ramp.

The museum is just over a decade old and during our visit had a gallery of video and photography, a gallery of strictly metal work, an exhibit on indigenous tribes, and the big hit: Frida Kahlo. I’ll let you enjoy some of the pieces for yourself and determine your own message to takeaway.

Learn anything? Good. Well it’s late and were off to the hotel in Curitiba. After some time on the coast where we may have been doing as much vacationing as studying, Curitiba gave us the feel of a true Brazilian city. So, as everyone does during their travels, we went to the mall food court. We were really late getting back so our options were limited, alright? Even though I wouldn’t go to the mall here in the States to get pizza, I still hadn’t tried a slice in Brazil and went for it at the mall. It was up to par though and I went to bed rather happy. 

See you tomorrow

Day 6

Day 6 and I have bad news. On a day where we’re going rafting, swimming, and lounging in the sauna, I’m in a bathing suit and robe sun up to sun down. The result: I have no pictures of an unbelievable day. We had more good times on the bus after we say our final goodbye to Floripa. Our home for the first leg of the trip could not have been better to us and it isn’t much fun to walk away without knowing when the next opportunity to return will be.

What is fun is that our bus ride was taking us to Santo Amaro. For everyone following along here’s the map of where we’ve been. Starting in Floripa and heading south; then returning north; and now making our way west.

It is freezing cold outside, but how many chances do you get to go white water (well, brown water) rafting in Brasil? We throw on wet suits, helmets, and soaking wet shoes then head for the vans. They’re the most rickety vans you’ve ever been in, but they have some serious character and we’re on our way to the river with our rafts on the roof. Just like you did back when you played soccer as a kid, we start with stretching out. Rafting isn’t for the faint of heart as it turns out. Then, we hop in the boat and go in circles to make sure everyone is thoroughly confused. It turns out that our guide is simply making sure we can follow his instructions. For the next 30 minutes, hour, 2 hours, 3 hours -  I really have no way of knowing – we have a blast going down the rapids. We get a chance to stop and do flips off a rock ledge, get pictures under a waterfall, and ram the other boats at full speed. When it is freezing outside this all may have been a horrible decision, but I had a great time and would do it again in a heartbeat.

After our rafting trip a ride back to the hot springs could not come quickly enough. A shower was heavenly after the cold water earlier and then the next few hours were all about the hot spring pool, the sauna, and the steam room. I don’t think it would take much convincing to get us to spend a couple extra days at Aguas Mornas. Dinner was excellent as usual, and the evening’s festivities were a group trip to the game room. Pool, ping pong, foosball, and air hockey kept us entertained for the whole night. The hidden gem, however, was dominoes. We had seen plenty of men playing in the park while touring Floripa, and our buddy Ihor took the time to teach our group how to play. He had quickly created a monster and dominoes became an instant hit. Soon our man Joe would be searching Brasil high and low for his own set so that we could play on our bus rides.

Until tomorrow everyone – Thanks for reading

Day 5

Day five is our free day in Floripa and I personally took the opportunity to catch up on sleep and do a little bit of work to catch up in the real world. If it means giving up one morning to work in exchange for enjoying everything that we’ve had a chance to enjoy this week I’ll do it ten out of ten times. After most students had a chance to enjoy lunch downtown they made it back to the hotel and dragged me out to get some air. First we went up to check out the view of Floripa from the hotel roof and saw the famous Brazilian favelas. 

A little bit later we took off to do a bit of exploration in the city. Having seen downtown the day before I was tempted to check out two things: shoes stores and sports stores. I seemingly come back with a new pair of shoes from every major trip I take and love to browse even if I’m not looking for anything in particular. (Spoiler: I came back with new sandals.) I was dying to get a Brazilian soccer jacket as well, but walked away empty handed. We got to see a strip of shops, a bit of the coastline, and the market. Of all pieces of the culture I’d like to bring back to the States, the market may be the one I’d like to see most. I believe that most families will only do their shopping for a day or two at a time. After work it’s time to go to the market and collect what you need for a handful of meals. As a result you don’t have a great deal of food storage at home and meals are all very fresh. I had to try some fruit myself, so I grabbed a couple bunches of grapes while a couple students tried the coconut water.

After our tour came the highlight of the day. We opened up a very cool sushi restaurant within walking distance of the hotel (Heads up: if you arrive at 6:30 you’ll be the only people in the restaurant.) Six of us went all out and ordered a massive boat for the table to give us a chance to try everything they had to offer. Being the only people in the building, we had the full staff staring at us the entire time. It probably didn’t help that we were American and spoke Portuguese. Although it was uncomfortable, it became entertaining really quickly, and a great meal became a really fun evening between laughing at ourselves and the entire situation. 

 

See you manana

Day 4

Day four and we get a perfect day of weather for our tour of Floripa. We met in the morning for a quick breakfast then took off for the city center, where the oldest part of the city is located and now is home to a large market and the governor’s mansion. Next we found potentially the best view of the day at the highest point on the island. We took some great pictures overlooking the city and then continued our tour with a trip to the beach. Although we are in the heart of winter, the beach is every bit as great as you would expect. The water was warm enough to get in, and the beach is very smooth. There were essentially no shells and the slope is as gradual as I’ve ever seen. We were actually able to see multiple beaches throughout the course of the afternoon, making our way to another portion of the island for lunch. We found a small cove after a really cool walk across the canal connecting the ocean to one of the island’s lakes. Other things we saw were sandboarding in Joaquina on the side of a large dune and a few local shops with Brazilian artwork.

 Potentially the coolest part of the tour of the island was our man Rodrigo’s ability to point out from each stop the other portions of the island that we had visited. After a few days we may have finally put together an idea of how Floripa was laid out.

After a long day of sightseeing we returned to the hotel around dinner time. We had plenty more to do before the end of the evening however. Stopping by the local university downtown, which happened to be the ISA office of Floripa as well, we attended a lecture by REGSA. REGSA gave us an overview of the Brazilian renewable energy portfolio and discussed today’s largest challenges as well as the primary projects being developed. Brasil has a very impressive 50% of its vehicles capable of running on either biodiesel or traditional petroleum. Additionally we discussed how devastating the current drought has been for Brasil and Sao Paulo specifically. The rationing of water is starting way too late and the lack of reservoir depth means blackouts are likely without rain. To account for the growing electricity demand around the country, hydro plants in the Amazon are likely the next undertaking. The high flow, low head plants required for the region will be a new challenge for Brasil, but the potential is too great to pass up. 

Day 3

Welcome to day three in Brazil where we are headed to Ventos do Sul. Ventos do Sul is one of the wind farms of Enerfin, a wind power utility owned by Elecnor. With sites in Brazil, Canada, and Spain, Enerfin has constructed over 2 GW of turbines and are continually growing. In Brazil specifically, the potential for additional wind is high, as many rural areas remain untapped. As a result, the development of offshore wind is likely to be many years away.

The turbines we were able to see up close are 2.3 MW direct drive units from Enercon. Blade diameters ranged from 72 meters to 90 meters and hub heights from 80 meters to 108 meters. The direct drive units use a generator that operates at the same rotational speed as the turbine rather than using a gearbox to increase rpm and use a smaller generator. The consequence is that the direct drive units are much quieter and enjoyable to stand near.

Just as exciting was our trip to the control room for Ventos do Sul. In contrast to Tractabel, there was a very modern digital control system. The continuous monitoring of wind speed, direction, power output, and rotor speed were extremely intuitive and gave the operator an opportunity to monitor the plant performance from anywhere remotely.

Following our visit, we had a great Brazilian lunch with service to the table of a wide assortment of meats and a new favorite dish – cinnamon sugared pineapples. A long drive back to Floripa meant a great portion of day three was spent sleeping, but we had a great visit and looked forward to getting back to our first home.

Day 2

After our first night at FLOPH, where I'm rooming with my man Aryel, we kicked off the day with a surprisingly traditional american breakfast. We couldn't stay long though, and took off for Capivari de Baixo to visit Tractebel Energia. The bus rides are sure to be plenty of entertainment and I hope to have some quality pictures of everyone sleeping soon. Once we arrived at Tractabel our guide Pablo gave an overview of the company in the form of two videos. Owned by GDF Suez, they are a subset of one of the world's largest utility companies. We learned that similar to Brazil, Tractabel generates over 80% of its electricity via hydroelectric plants, and makes up roughly 7% of all Brazilian generation. The notable point I took from our discussion is the very likely growth of fossil fuel based generation in Brazil to create stable and reliable baseload generation independent of weather conditions. The current drought in Brazil has created dangerously low water levels and without rain in the near future, blackouts are likely.

If we look at the issue from a positive lens, a point worth noting is that Brazil has a national grid, meaning generation anywhere in country is fully capable of powering Sao Paulo and Rio. Additionally, the generation growth needed to maintain Tractabel's 7% share of the national generation is 66% by 2020. This means heavy support by the utility industry in Brazil's manufacturing industry and plenty of job opportunities. Tractabel, like each utility in Brazil, has to maintain certain standards set by ISO. Current standards mandate quality, environmental impact, and personal safety minimums and maximums, with plans to implement an energy efficiency standard.

After the lecture, the group was able to see a model of one of the units at the site, as well as an overview of the entire plant site. In Capivari de Baixo the site generates 857 MW which is capable of supporting 2 million people. Seeing a model of the turbine, generator, steam condensate storage tank, and all of the required pumps provided a great understanding of the loop used in generation. After the model we were able to see the control room for the plant with a detailed explanation of the closed loop used for boiling steam. For reliability the initial analog controls are all still used, but the system is very impressive visually. The turbine typically operates at roughly 3600 rpm, but one unit was actually out of service and we had the opportunity to view the generator rotor from a distance.

We learned that the coal used locally is very dirty relative to the quality of U.S. plants. As a result a great deal of ash is produced. One of Tractabel's projects is the construction of a community center on what used to be the ash field. A picture below shows one of the portraits I liked best in a small art gallery we had a chance to view.

After our long day at Tractabel we took the bus back to Tramandaí for dinner and a night just hanging out with new friends. 

Brazil Day 1 Update

Hey Everyone,

We have made it to Brazil and there is already so much to tell you about. I had yet to meet anyone in the class before arriving in country, so it was great to fly in with Elijah and meet up with Cory at the airport. Elijah and I just happened to be seated next to each other so we had a chance to get to know each other after working in the same group all Summer for classwork. Our man Daniel with ISA tracked us down and got us on board the shuttle to the hotel. Our first glimpses of Brazil came from a drive to FLOPH (our hotel) where we quickly saw favelas and plenty of coastline. An orientation session that evening with ISA leaders Rodrigo and Ihor allowed everyone to get a feel for the next two weeks of life in Brazil and allowed me to make initial introductions with my new classmates. We closed out the evening of a long first day with dinner nearby the hotel. Filet mignon was a sufficient way to kick off two weeks of Brazilian cuisine.

Thanks for reading and be on the lookout for another blog update tomorrow,
Nick