Today we went to Tanquinho Solar Plant
run by CPFL Energia in the city of Campinas. I am not sure what I had in mind
specifically when I thought of a solar power plant but what I saw was not it. I
think I was expecting a more factory looking environment, but this location was
not that. It had an amazing landscape with flowers and ponds outside and high
tech equipment inside. Overall, I was
taken back by the beautiful location. 
Unfortunately, between the lack of
knowledge I have in the energy industry and the language barrier of the
workers, my understanding of their operations were very basic. What I gathered
from our visit is that the company has a lot of advanced technology that allows
them to track all of the energy they supply very accurately. Their operations
are run 24 hours a day so they can monitor all of the energy they distribute in
case there is a power outage somewhere. In the event of a power outage, they
have an overview of the entire grid so power can be sourced from alternate
locations when possible. They are also capable of pinpointing exactly where a
problem is stemming from so workers can be sent out quickly to fix the issue
while customer service is updated with real time notifications that can be relayed
to the concerned customers.
They also showed us their “Smart Meter” which
allows them to run tests to show how much energy is being used at a particular
point and gather that information in less than a second. With this meter they
can monitor energy for billing purposes and also cut off power, or limit it in
the case of commercial use, when the bill is not paid for.
Afterwards, we were introduced to
their electric cars that run 100% off electricity and are slightly smaller than
the average car. One thing that CPFL is still working out is how to control the
electricity that will be used for the car. The example given was a cellphone.
While you may buy a phone in one location, the carrier is the one in charge of
getting data to that phone and the one who also benefits financially from you
having a cell phone. They have the same situation with their car. While they
would sell the car, the electricity used would come from many different sources
and they are working out ways to monitor that as well as make sure there is
enough electricity available to charge their cars with.
Lastly, we were driven to their
Solar farm where we saw all of the panels they had set up. A small portion of them
were able to rotate east to west with the sun which allows for about 11% more
efficiency. Unfortunately, due to the cost they cannot have all of their panels
rotate. The panels they have covered a large portion of land (in my opinion)
and were well maintained. The panels are cleaned every 2 months based off of a
calculation of loss of efficiency vs cost of cleaning. According to
calculations, after 2 months the dirt on the panels make them 10% less
efficient and so that is when they are cleaned.
Even
from someone who has limited understanding of how solar energy is collected and
distributed, I thought today was very interesting and I am thankful to have had
the opportunity to visit their business.
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