Field Trips Part 2

Today's field trip was definitely my favorite, possibly because I knew the most about it! We visited Usina Henry Borden Hydroelectric Plant in Santos! It took a loooooooooong time to get there but once we did it was very cool! We learned about the history of the area and how they started the plant. It was built by a Canadian company but with and American engineer! Yay America! The way it is designed is to use the natural rivers height to start the water at top and get that potential energy and use it! Because it uses water ways that already start that high the energy used to get the water that high is minimal. Most of the work is done by mother nature! They then have a reservoir to hold the water and then let it fall over the side of the mountain into turbines which create the energy. Obviously this is very simplified but still a recap of how it works! We were taken to see two of the locations where the turbines are working, one above ground and one below ground! The one below ground was cool because we all got to go into a cave! I also found it fascinating that the turbines rarely need maintenance or replacement and most parts have been there since it was built! I found this trip so exciting because the idea of hydroelectricity is definitely a huge part of both Brazil's and the United States future in renewable energy. It is the leading source of renewable energy in both countries and right now Brazil has some of the largest plants in the world! Currently China has the space of biggest plant but Brazil plans to build a new one in the next few years that surpasses it. Though this form of renewable energy seems like the way to go, America has yet to build any new plants since the 1940's! This may be because our current plants are doing their job and we don't need any more but I think it's more lack of funding and motivation from the government. If we could utilize our waterways to create power for us without polluting or putting out communities of people then it seems to be the best option right now in renewable energy. Brazil's new plant has a lot of protesting going on because it does plan to relocate entire communities of indigenous people! Every source of energy has it's pros and cons and I guess each country needs to decide which pros and cons matter the most when deciding what decisions to make. Hopefully there can be a solution that makes most people happy. In the end though, it seems finding a renewable source of energy will be more important than keeping society happy.