Day 4

Ironically, in the morning the shower had no cold water: all the water that came out of the shower was scalding hot and I couldn't stand under the stream. After breakfast (eggs, meat, cheese, sweet avocado juice, papaya juice) we drive to  the outskirts of Osório to visit a wind farm called Vientos do Sul, which is a wind farm in the Enerfín (wind energy) branch of Elecnor energy company. This visit was really enlightening because I didn't know much about wind turbines. It was cool to see the progression of increasing efficiency of turbines over the last few years and it made me excited to see how wind energy can help power the world in the future. I have seen wind turbines from a distance but never before have I seen so many in one place and been so close to one. Hearing the whooshing noise of the 80 meter diameter blades was fascinating. The area was incredible windy, so no wonder they picked this spot for a wind farm! We then went the wind farm's substation and got to see the control room. This was a stark contrast with the power plant because all the controls were digitized while the power plant controls were analog. Learning how each turbine adjusted itself for optimal wind exposure helped answer some questions about wind turbines that I had before. Enerfín has wind farms in Brazil, Spain, and Canada. Different considerations need to be taken into place based on location. For example, since it gets very cold in Canada, the turbine blades  need to generate heat so that they don't freeze up and destroy the whole turbine.