A Secretary and a Landfill

On Tuesday we got to meet the secretary of energy of Sao Paulo Milton Lautenschlager. He talked about the energy production of the state and the potential it has to increase its production with more renewable energies. 44% of Brazilian energy comes from renewable sources and Sao Paulo follows suit with 55%. Milton went on to talk about the different programs and plans for the future of energy. The state is very successful in with Biomass energy with it being 60.3% of the energy made. The rest is mostly hydro power.  In the state there are no wind farms and a small amount of solar plants and the energy that can be gotten from the rivers has been maxed out. The plan is to triple the amount of renewable energy in the state by 2020. With hydro maxed out it is necessary to focus on wind and solar while updating the biomass facilities. This is similar to the U.S’s plan since they want to increase their renewable energy output by 2020 by focusing on similar methods. The problem is more dependent on fossil fuels and the infrastructure is not a well-established. Mr. Lautenschlager speech was very informative and I now have a better understanding to how Sao Paulo is powered.

On Thursday went to the Sao Joao Landfill where the trash of the area is buried and used for power. The garbage decomposes and produces methane. This can be collected and cleaned and directed into a turbine to produce electricity. Seeing the systems first hand I was impressed. The system is large and produces large amounts of power. It putting our trash to work for us, it’s a great idea. The size of the landfill also impressed me. Most of the time we were standing atop of layers of garbage and what we can see had tons of garbage under it. This technology is not as big in the U.S most likely due to initial cost investments. The power produced must not be as enticing to do all the work to implement such systems. There is also the risk of causing some sort of contamination in the surrounding area. Also the smell was pretty bad when they went there. People might not want more landfills if they have to smell that awful stench.  Overall these were pretty interesting trips and I learned new things about Brazil and renewable energy.