An Insightful Day to say the least – Costa Rica Day 8

Hey everyone! Today was another great day with new adventures. These started off with breakfast and a lesson on the oldest renewable resource, solar power, which was followed by a visit to Lake Arenal’s reservoir opening (location where reservoir spills into to reach hydropower plants downstream). Before I continue, I would like to give everyone some background information on solar power (we won’t get a chance to visit a plant, but solar power is a very vital renewable energy source):

• Photovoltaic technology (PV) was born in the United States in 1954

• PV is one of the two primary ways of extracting the sun’s power, along with CSP (Concentrating Solar Power)

• The first large scale solar power plant went online in 1982 in Histeria, California (PV)

• The solar power industry has grown immensely since the turn of the millennium

• Silicon is essential in creating PV cells, and this essential in creating solar power

• Silicon does degrade with use, so PV cells (solar panels) need to be replaces every now and then, every 20 years is an average estimate

• CSP uses central towers with mirrors reflecting the sun’s light onto them to maximize efficiency

• CSP technology also uses molten salt as a means to transfer more of the sun’s energy

• Most effective with high temperatures and high elevations

• Can yield around 60% capacity as opposed to 20% from PV if central towers are used, otherwise just using CSP with reflecting dishes (many different generators, not just one central tower) yields around 20-25% capacity

• Solar Power does require high land use, but most of this land is in locations where people don’t generally live

• So now that land use isn’t the issue, how does solar power from remote locations reach the public? New transmission lines have to be built and these are expensive (one major con with solar power)

• Subsidies and policies in the U.S. have increased solar power production

• From 2005 to 2010, solar production grew 234%

• Germany creates 19,000 GW of Solar Energy per year (substantially high) without even being a great location for solar energy (We need to invest more into solar energy is what this is implying)

• Because of this, Germany has been able to reduce their coal use/production to a point to where the country is expected to use almost no coal by 2050

• Solar power works in conjunction wind power as solar power peaks in the daytime while wind power peaks in the nighttime (combining both technologies will produce energy all day long)

• Solar power is proficient in replacing gas peakers during peak hours of energy use and thus can have greater potential returns than other renewable energy sources

• China produces mass amounts of cheap solar panels and sells overflow to the U.S., but this hurts U.S. companies

• Solar Power is considered a mature technology and is clearly in wide commercial use even though much is still being researched in the field

I tried to take as many notes on the solar power lesson as possible if you couldn’t tell; solar power is very interesting to me as it still has so much potential even as an already mature technology. Visiting Lake Arenal’s reservoir opening was very cool. The scale model of the opening was extremely cool to look at. We learned that scuba divers are necessary to check up on the operation of the sediment filter every now and then, and for this reason, the plant had an emergency pressure pod for divers who could potentially get hypothermia (The last time the pod was used was 4 years ago, hopefully it doesn’t see much action anytime soon or ever because its use generally entails severe endangerment of a diver). The engineer at Lake Arenal gave us a quick tour and showed us the beautiful views he enjoyed at work every day. After visiting Lake Arenal’s reservoir opening, we visited a sustainable house. The owners of this sustainable house were very hospitable, amazing people. The man who built the house, Vigo, had a lot to tell us. We had actually built and designed the house himself; he literally figured everything out for the house and made it sustainable all by himself. His story was inspirational and insightful as he gave us a clear example that anyone could do what they set their mind to do. I should add that he was a chef. We enjoyed lunch at his house and it was very good. We also took a walk down through his woods and across a river to see his majestic horse and a beautiful view of Costa Rica’s hills and open surface. Vigo, with some anecdotes from his wife included, told us a summary of his life story throughout our visit at his house. He also raised the question, “What is truly green? Does everyone really know what green is?” to us; this question made me wonder whether I really knew the definition of green or whether green really existed. I thought about how literally every source of energy had an opportunity cost related with it and how nothing in this world is given to anyone for free. It is a very interesting question which will continue to circulate through my head as this trip continues and afterwards as well. After visiting Vigo’s house, we headed towards our new hotel. I do need to include that we had to leave the amazing Volcano Brewery Hotel earlier in the day. We arrived at our new hotel and enjoyed some free time before going on boat to the middle of Lake Arenal where we swam and enjoyed the glistening water and one of a kind view. When we got back we had dinner at the hotel and time to work on our Capstone Projects, which are starting to come to a finish. We have tomorrow to work on our Capstones as well, then we have to present. As I am exhausted from the day and headed to bed, I have to say that today, although not as exciting as some days, was one of the most rewarding.