Culture Homework #4

I must be honest, I was not expecting the futebol match in Curitiba to live up to the hype that we were presented with in class. Most of the time in our futebol focused class, I was comparing each aspect of the game, fans, and culture to sports in the US; namely baseball. I could name at least 20 guys from my hometown that have either Yankees or Mets tattoos, like the ones shown to us for each of Sao Paulo’s teams. I could relate the devotion to the team from your home area to the same devotion I see to New York and Boston teams. I could relate the arguments and possible violence to fights that I had always heard of back in the states. Finally, I could relate the racial struggles in the history of the game to the similar fight for desegregation of professional leagues in the US.

Although all of these relations exist, futebol brings these aspects to a whole new level. The energy in the stadium was electric, with the sound of drums and jumping fans constantly pounding your chest. The stadium was packed, and I found very few people not wearing the team’s green jerseys. Nearly everyone stood for the entirety of the play time, and the chants never stopped, even when big events occurred on the field. Likewise, gigantic flags constantly waved in the stands, with nobody in those sections complaining about the view of the game because they were seemingly just so happy to be there. Even the visitor’s section was filled to the brim with screaming fans clad in red and black. I could not believe my senses, and I was easily dragged into the excitement, chanting, cheering, and jeering from the concrete bleachers whenever the crowd signaled to do so.

Although I greatly enjoyed this intense energy, there were some negative aspects. While we were welcomed to the tame section of the bleachers by some older women, the attitude toward us outsiders was much different in the hardcore fan section. On one hand, this aversion to outsiders is representative of the tight-knit community that exists within the Coritiba club, it also lends itself to violent tendencies that ruin the spirit of sportsmanship. This intensity is both what makes a futebol match so great, and so terrifying. Another unfortunate aspect was the obvious absence of racial diversity. A majority of the crowd looked more European in origin. However, I am not sure if this is because of the more European population of Southern Brazil, or because of the German origins of this historic club.

Nevertheless, it was truly special to have the experience that Thomas spoke so highly of. I loved the atmosphere of the free standing room on the bleachers. The pure energy flowing through those stands was impressive, regardless of some of this energy being negative (especially when Coritiba started to lose). I now have a much better understanding of why Brazilians love futebol, and why it is such an integral part of their culture.

Homework #8

Upon arrival at the office of the secretary, there was a great contrast between the poverty stricken area surrounding the office and the luxurious setup of the conference room. I feel that this may be telling to a misappropriation of social funds by the state government of Sao Paulo, however the state is certainly appropriating a correct portion of funds toward renewable energy resources. I was thoroughly impressed by nearly 60% of their energy resources being renewable. This is remarkably ahead of the rest of the world.

It's no surprise because the state of Sao Paulo has capitalized on their abundant sugar cane and hydroelectric resources. Their initiatives with tax incentives, electric company competition, and microgeneration are simple methods that have made a world of difference. They are also not stopping their renewable resource expansion anytime soon. Most importantly, the state serves as a role model for local municipalities across the world. While other states may not have the same resource possibilities as Sao Paulo, they proved that only a few powerful resources can lead to sustainability.

Nonetheless, they are starting to heavily pursue solar energy resources to broaden their portfolio. While this is not the most powerful resource, I admired their ability to learn from their experience with the drought. With the addition of solar, Sao Paulo would be more able to sustain their energy during a drought, whereas biomass, biofuels, hydroelectric, and forestry are greatly susceptible to drought.

Speaking of forestry, I did not know about trees being used as biomass. While it should have been self explanatory, I just never saw the growth time for trees as making it a viable energy resources. I am also interested to know the efficiency of this process because of the long gestation that is required, as well as the carbon dioxide output of burning this timber.

In the end, I could talk about the intriguing aspects of this trip for pages, but I want to make sure that I express how honored I am to have experienced this. Being able to pick the brains of these respected guides of the state of Sao Paulo was a spectacular experience that I will not forget.

Culture Homework #3 - Favelas

I feel that the most frustrating concept manifested in favelas is that the extremely costly police forces for the favelas of Rio are mostly ineffective. When you use the resources and lives that go into making a force like BOPE, then you expect this force to create a positive change in their assigned favela. According to Erika Larkins in "Performances of Police Legitimacy in Rio’s Hyper Favela", and the film "City of God", the police that work in favelas are mostly corrupt, ultra-violent, and all for show. 

Larkins speaks of how in one of the raids she witnessed in the El Dorado favela, the local traffickers simply paid a toll in the form of a couple tons of marijuana for the police to flaunt in front of the media, which they certainly did. Likewise, in "City of God", Lil Ze started a gruesome war with Carrot, the opposing drug lord of the favela, and simply had to pay the cops some cash when he was caught. Additionally, the weapons dealer for both sides of this destructive war was receiving his weapons supply from the local police. Therefore, while I'm sure some favela police are not corrupt, it is well known that many are, and a corrupt cop serves no purpose. Nevertheless, the government of Brazil still continually feeds these police forces into the favelas so that they can show the general populace that they're "tough on crime." While I can agree that this public perception of a successful police force is pivotal to governmental respect, it does nothing to stop the horrific acts of the favela gangs.

That is another important topic; the ultra-violence of the favela police. Larkins, eerily offhandedly, mentioned how police snipers shot and killed a "young kid" lookout for the gangs in El Dorado during one of their raids. The unfortunate part of this is that the gangs were already gone, having learned of the raid prior to it occurring. Therefore, the police, instead of incapacitating or arresting the lookout, murdered the young boy who's job meant nothing that night. a similar situation occurred in City of God when the police wrongly identified their suspect, and proceeded to chase down and kill an innocent child who was walking to school in the favela. While the police are nowhere near as brutal as the gangs in the favelas, their serving of violence with violence implies desperation, further convincing the favela residents that the state has no power compared to the gangs that serve them. Likewise, violence begets violence, so causing more violence with this outside force only inspires more internal destruction. 

Homework #7

At the beginning of this Alternative Energy Technologies course, I thought that the only obstacles keeping humans from living on sustainable resources were money, the ill-informed, and conservatives. Looking back, it is abundantly apparent how naive I was. There are countless challenges in living on sustainable resources. We will forever be needing more energy to meet our skyrocketing demand. We must consider wildlife and ecosystems that may require alterations or destruction in order to accommodate our energy production. We must make the processes efficient enough that we produce more energy than we use in its creation. I was blind to all of these factors, and more, before starting this course. I was also unaware of the extreme advantages that traditional energy sources have in these fields, with the only major downfalls being their long-term environmental impact, and their centuries-long renewal time.

Furthermore, I had this silly image of coal, oil, and natural gas as being these dark, devious energy sources that only serve to destroy the Earth and fatten industrialist pockets, whereas sustainable resources were these pillars of virtue that cradle the Earth and all of its creatures, while simultaneously meeting all of our hefty needs. I can liken this pristine image to that of the Giving Tree from Shel Silverstein's book of the same name. In the book, the tree provides the boy with everything from its apples to its own wood, without asking for anything in return. I have learned throughout this course that, similar to sustainable resources, the tree would have required expensive soil, daily watering, and years of growth before yielding to the boy. Even then, the tree still would have had a possibility of providing a bad apple in a small harvest,  or overshadowing other wildlife and choking out its existence.

Nevertheless, humans need energy just like the boy needed to eat apples. We may not like to pay the prices for sustainable energy resources, but it is a step we must take if we want to continue existing. Not only are we damaging our planet through the use of traditional resources, as I knew before this course, but we're also going to run out of these resources some day, and it is currently impossible to sustain our current lifestyles without a heavy reliance on traditional resources.

Culture Homework #2 - Roots of Brazil

The concept of the cordial man is very foreign to me. Coming from the United States, where we sing the national anthem at every event, pledge the flag in the morning, and plaster our flag over everything we possibly can, it is strange for me to think that one could not feel a sense of identity with their nation. I also grew up in New York during the post-9/11 era, so I feel a strong bond to both my state and my country, not to mention my home city of Newburgh. All of these communal qualities give me a strong sense of duty to the people around me, and that does not stop when I come to Brazil. That is why it is so difficult to see the maids working around me at the hostel or the HUB and not feel like I have to help with the dishes, or get out of their way so as to not inconvenience them in the slightest way. In the United States, one is tied to the people around them, because we are all Americans, or New Yorkers, or what have you. Therefore, having an old woman whom I do not know cleaning up my messes feels backwards. I feel instead as if I should have her take my seat and I do the work.

Yet, this is not the case in Brazil.  The Brazilians are not tethered to "clear origins or to explanatory 'centers'" as Monteiro suggests. Therefore, the Brazilian should feel no duty to take the weight off of an elderly maid's shoulders, as they feel no connection with her. The same goes for a homeless person on Avenue Paulista. Monteiro would argue that a Brazilian should feel no need to help this person because of "some abstract 'collectivity'" that a member of another culture may feel to that same person. Therefore, why should an impoverished Brazilian feel any shame in robbing or swindling a more well off person, when they feel no relation to said person? The Brazilians that I have witnessed find it normal to turn a blind eye to the elderly or the struggling. However, this is not out of cruelty or a lack of empathy, but simply because they may not recognize that person as personally important to them.

The opposite side of the cordial man persona is duty to one's family. According to Monteiro, the Brazilian is only emotionally responsible for the "well-being of a small family nucleus." This would explain why the nanny Val, in The Second Mother, feels an intense connection to her daughter Jessica, even though she was not there to raise Jessica. This connection explains why Val went through years of being treated like a second-class citizen by the family she served to provide for the daughter that she did not truly know. Likewise, when Val learned of Jessica's secret child, she wanted to bring the child to live with her and Jessica, even though it was fine where it was living. This is most likely because of her intense instinct to be a grandmother, owing to her connection with her family. Interestingly, Val also felt an intense love for the son of her hiring family, Fabinho. While Fabinho was not her blood, he was still a part of the family nucleus that she was a part of for so many years. This made him like her own son, that she was able to raise in exchange for Jessica. I believe that this was an important fulfillment for Val, and that she needed a family to be responsible for because of her cordial nature, even if she was not related.

Overall, the cordial man identity is a foreign concept to me, as I have always been strongly bound to my community, and surrounding citizens in general. This severe shift in social values feels like the difference that I subconsciously knew existed just from my time here in Brazil. I was happy to receive an explanation of this difference from both the class material and Roots of Brazil, because now it is easier to understand the actions and motivations of Brazilians around me.

Homework #5 - Biomass Plant

Today’s visit to the biomass plant was interesting, and not only because of the smell. I was impressed by how thorough and resourceful the plant’s production was, with the plant using every part of the sugar cane to the fullest extent. From the stalk to the syrup to the hard sugar, every aspect was taken advantage of.

While it may seem like the stalks of the sugar cane may seem like trash to many, this plant put their waste to use. After extracting the syrup, the stalks were dried and fed into a boiler, where they were burned to collect energy from a typical steam-turbine system. While this may seem insignificant, it is anything but. This process produced about 40 MW, which is enough to keep the plant self-sufficient, and have a remaining 20 MW to sell to the grid. I was pleased to learn of this process because it alleviates one of the main issues of biomass production; biomass plants use nearly as much energy as they produce. At least by cutting down on the energy usage of the actual plant, the carbon weight of harvesting and transportation are not as detrimental. Likewise, the close proximity of the plant to the sugar cane fields lowers the impact of shipping the sugar cane.

Dried sugar cane stalk

Furthermore, the ethanol production process made sure that nothing was wasted. Through the five extraction processes, the plant is able to gather 70% of the syrup out of the sugar cane. This syrup was then brewed into the wine-like substance, and converted into ethanol which was distilled to 94% purity. While this pure ethanol does not smell very good, I was surprised by how clear it was. I always pictured a gold-ish liquid similar to gasoline, but even the color of ethanol gives it a purer feel than gasoline. We saw this sample in the on-site lab, which performed regular tests to ensure the quality of their product, ensuring the safety of their consumers. This is important when the plant outputs 300,000 Liters per day.

Test Distiller

Rationally, the plant also produces sugar from these sugar canes, which tasted great. The amount of sugar constantly being stored in that warehouse was staggering, with a ton sized bag of sugar coming in every minute or so.

Raw sugar cane

Our final stop was the sugar cane fields, where Josh, our fearless leader, rode in the harvester. This harvester was a behemoth, with blades on the upper arm to chop the excess leaves of the crop, and bottom blades that chopped the stalks before they were fed into the harvester. The harvester then sorted out a majority of the excess, leaving only the sugar cane stalks to be transported to the plant in a separate truck. This early sorting is just another example of the attention to detail in this process. However, it was disheartening to see the age and size of the equipment used at the farm, as these machines are certainly not clean burning, or high on mpg.

Harvester

Nevertheless, this is an expected cost, and it would be interesting to see if the extra efficiency of the sugar cane ethanol process makes up for this energy spending. Overall, I must say that I truly admire the self-sufficiency and total usage of the sugar cane at this plant. It was really SWEET to see such an efficient and well engineered facility.

Homework #4 - Hydroelectric Plant

The hydroelectric power plant was set in a breathtaking area of Brazil, nestled in a jungle valley of some towering mountains. This location makes me marvel at the challenges that had to be overcome in the construction of this facility among thick opposition from nature. As if that were not enough, The underground turbines were contained within the face of the mountain

I was again impressed when I learned the system in place for harvesting this hydroelectric power. I was initially under the impression that water from a river or waterfall would be naturally flowing into contact with the turbines. Instead, the water was collected into tubes and targeted toward the turbines through seal-able nozzles. This pushed the water out at a much faster rate, and, when shot from four directions toward the turbine, allowed them to spin at about 350 rpm for the above ground systems, and 450 rpm for the underground systems. Also, the nozzles permitted the workers to shut off the water fairly quickly in case of malfunction. As if that were not enough, there were deflectors that could be raised to stop the water from hitting the turbine at a moments notice. To top it off, the above ground system produced around 950 MW, and the below ground system made even more. This means that each of the turbines produced much more energy than the entire solar plant. All of this stellar engineering created a durable, and powerful system, making it no wonder that Brazil has been able to depend on this plant for generations.

On the other hand, the age of the plant shows. All of the electronic controls were extremely dated. The guide stated that they were not updated because of the extra money, and the fact that this current system worked so well, however its easy to wonder whether or not the system could produce more energy if given an upgrade. Nevertheless, it may be more pertinent to construct more renewable energy resources with the money that would be put into optimizing this working plant. Another interesting portion was that a good amount of fish were killed by these turbines, and that the guide seemed to almost be pleased about it. While I can understand human needs coming before those of a handful of fish, it may be morally worthwhile to invest in an improved channeling system for wildlife.

While I was impressed by the output of the plant, fickle usage of hydroelectric power was concerning. The guide told us that, with the recent drought, they were unable to meet demand for their energy, leaving gaps that were probably filled by fossil fuels. Contrarily, this year was a very wet one, giving the plant the ability to produce more energy than was necessary to fill demand. Unfortunately, when this happens, they just produce until they meet demand and then stop, instead of the fossil fuel plants giving up some production. While this makes sense from a business standpoint, and the water can always be saved for a less-than-rainy-day, I was hoping that the plant would produce as much clean energy as possible and sell of the surplus to replace fossil fuel sources.

Overall, I was impressed by the scale, potency, and durability of the hydroelectric plant. Likewise, it was exciting to the engineer in me to see such a clean, well-thought-out system. Nevertheless, as the author of our textbook is sure to stress, their is no way that hydroelectricity alone could fill Brazilian energy demand. This method leaves us at the mercy of nature to a greater extent than the other renewable energy resources, due to the increasing global temperatures and changing climates.

Homework #3 - Solar Energy Plant

On arrival to the CPFL control center, I was impressed by the sleek, professionalism mixed with the natural pools and greenery, which truly emphasized the goal of the alternative energy control center. We then moved into the Control Room which was fascinatingly reminiscent of the NASA control rooms in movies. From that room, CPFL is able to dispatch maintenance crews to restore power to any customer on their grid. Through new automatic monitoring and calls to customer service, the Control Room knows about grid issues within seconds. Next they showed us the smart metering room where they monitor the electricity use by each customer in order to bill them appropriately. One very interesting demonstration they gave us was of the automatic re-connection of the electric arrays. When one connection hub would go offline, the individual homes and businesses connected to that hub automatically connected to a new hub, ensuring that the metering is never offline for long. Likewise, because of the smart metering system, they could remotely, instead of physically, cut off electricity if a customer did not pay. Another portion of this system that I found interesting was that all the portions of the metering system were mapped, and that they were very concentrated in the regions to which CPFL provided service. This shows that the demand for electricity obtained by alternative energy is present in Brazil.

After viewing the connection aspects of CPFL, we went to their museum in which we learned about the progression of electricity and power plants in Brazil over time. My favorite portion of this museum was seeing the timeline of Brazilian energy that they had above the specimens. Finally, we viewed the electric cars in development. These cars were extremely compact due to the absence of a diesel engine, however this made it so that they could only travel around 120 km on a 6 hour charge, making them nonviable for consumer use. Likewise, there are only 11 charging stations in the state of Sao Paulo, making it hard to refuel. Nevertheless, it was interesting to drive, as you hear virtually no noise from the car, save the tires on the ground.

The next destination of our journey was the solar power plant, which housed both electricity production and solar energy research. It was there that we learned about CPFL's reasoning, from a business standpoint, for putting more resources into alternative energy sources other than solar. Because of the cost and quality of materials that this Brazilian company has to work with, solar has fallen behind in CPFL's production priorities, and they have not put funds into solar until recently. A majority of their energy harvesting is currently done through wind, hydroeletric, and biomass fuels because the cheaper, quality technology is available. Unfortunately, they cannot expand hydroelectric power much more due to conservation efforts for the Amazon River, but they are still growing rapidly. One statistic, if I remember correctly, showed them having over 30% growth in power production and customers from 2014-2015, which is very promising.

Furthermore, I was shocked to learn that their solar power made up for less than 1% of their electricity production in the sunny country of Brazil. The guide, however, explained that their older solar panels are only about 8% efficient, while their less plentiful, but newer, pivoting panels were about 15% efficient. This lack of effective solar panels led the company to seek panels from China, however they found that these panels degraded much faster than average. This is why the research at this facility is pivotal to the betterment of their solar harvesting ability. One final interesting aspect that I had never realized before this trip was that dust accumulated on the panels due to nearby agriculture. After testing the proper frequency of washing, CPFL determined that the panels needed to be washed every 2 months. 

I feel that this trip was very enlightening into the real world limitations of solar energy technology in rising economies such as Brazil's. While we would always like to think that the biggest obstacle in sustainable energy is getting money and motivation, there are many technological limitations as well. Nevertheless, these limitations are solvable through powerful engineering!

Homework 1

The data presented to us in the deliverable provides a lot of insight of energy usage internationally. The first graph, entitled World total primary energy supply from 1971 to 2013 by fuel, compares the usage of each type of energy supply over the given time period. Unfortunately, there is no y-axis label to show the unit of these energy measurements, however, the graph still provides a proper comparison of each form of energy supply. The different supplies are differentiated by their color and depicted over years to show the change in international dependence on each supply over the given time period.  The most striking observation is that all of the renewable energy supplies combined have not yet been equal or greater than any of the non-renewable sources; natural gas, oil, and coal. Likewise, while the use of these renewable supplies has increased over this 42 year period, the use of coal and natural gas has drastically increased, and the use of oil has remained relatively the same. Furthermore, the overall world use of energy supplies has more than doubled. It is likely that as technology and world populations advance, this powerful upward trend will continue.

The second figure, Table 1.5, provides percentages of world population, world GDP, and world energy consumption for 7 major countries around the world, as of 2001 and 2002. The most immediate observation that one can make is that, while the United states holds less than 5% of the world's population, they are responsible for 32% of world GDP and 24% of world energy consumption. While the ratio of population to GDP is similar to that of the other advanced countries on this list, namely Japan and the UK, the United States is unrivaled in their ratio of world population to energy consumption. Another interesting observation is that India and China, which are both responsible for about 20% of the world population, hold shockingly small percentages of the world GDP. Likewise they use a much smaller percentage of world energy comparatively to the advanced nations, which have mush smaller populations. These figures depict a great disparity in the share of world GDP and energy between the advanced and developing economies.

The third figure, Figure 1.7, gives a comparison of GNP per capita to energy consumption per capita for 15 countries. For the most part, an increase in GNP translates to an increase in energy consumption. The out-liars are Japan, Canada, and the USA. Japan has a high GNP compared to its energy consumption, while Canada and the USA have extremely high energy consumption, and significant GNP's. Furthermore, China, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, and India barely fit on the same graph as the other nations, which further supports the difference between advanced and developing countries in energy consumption and national production.

After reviewing this data, I calculated my personal energy footprint for both my current lifestyle, and my possible lifestyle 20 years in the future. My current energy footprint is 21 tons of CO2 per year, while my possible future output is 19 tons. This is happily below the US average of 27 tons per year, but I am still significantly higher than the world average of 5.5 tons per year. This is reflective of the data, as the USA accounts for the largest portion of world energy consumption, however I was still shocked by the results. It is my hope that this dialogue will increase my ability to engineer more efficiently, as well as live more efficiently.

First Day!

Today we finally made it to Brazil after a lengthy travel over the Americas, and thankfully I have enough espresso in me to do this blog post. I have yet to thoroughly experience Brazilian culture, but so far it seems similar to American culture. The food is rich and they love sugar here. Likewise, the Brazilian people are dressed just like us, with a wide range of outfits. That being said, I am even more nervous about embracing Brazilian culture, because I am not quite sure what it is like. It could actually be similar to our own, or it could be wildly different and I just have yet to break through the outer layer. Nevertheless, I plan to keep an open mind and follow the footsteps of my experienced Brazilian guides so that I may become more familiar with this culture and adapt to it. I also hope to check out local businesses to expand my knowledge of what the average Brazilian life looks like.

Unfortunately, all of my preconceived notions of Brazil are fueled by fearful reports from detached persons in the United States. I have yet to hear the good aspects of Brazil and its culture because so many people back home feel the need to tell me what we have all seen on the news. While these bad aspects, such as extreme poverty, corrupt government, and the multiple mosquito-borne diseases, are a large concern of mine, I hope that they do not shape my perception of this country and its culture.

My only other experience abroad was my visit to Italy, which was 10 days where I knew the language and had learned many of the customs from my family. Therefore, this experience will be unlike any other I have had before. And that is entirely exciting to me! Sure, I only have a basic understanding of the language, and almost no knowledge of the culture, but that means I have a lot to learn, and that is really all of the fun.

-Jake