8/13/14

In contrast to yesterday’s tour of a coal-fired power plant, today we got to experience renewable power generation first-hand. Ventos do Sul is a just one part of a large wind energy project in Osorio. The visit began with an informational lecture that covered topics including the generating capacity of individual turbines and the Osorio project as a whole, as well as energy diversity/security issues in Brazil. I learned that although wind energy faces a number of challenges like cost of production and storage, the technology is improving and becoming more feasible for large-scale applications over time. After the lecture, we were taken up to the roof of the education building to get a 360 view of the wind farm. Looking out over the open space with wind turbines as far as the eye could see, I realized that the land was not dedicated exclusively to harnessing wind energy, but its original function, rice farming, had been maintained. Cattle were still roaming and birds were still flying. To me, this exemplified a real life application of sustainability by taking advantage of a renewable energy source without compromising the existing environmental conditions.