Tractebel

Today we visited an energy company called Tractebel Energia. During our travel there we saw a lot of dogs. I guess it is very common to see stray dogs all over Brazil. I got a few pictures of some of the doggies that we saw. They are very friendly and come up to you wagging their tails. 

I might have to stop at a store and buy some doggy treats to carry around with me! There were even dogs on the grounds of the company that we visited just hanging out where the employees can eat their lunches outside.

Tractebel provides 7% of Brazil's energy. They have a wide variety of power generation methods. About 80% of the energy they produce comes from renewable resources, the other 20% is from fossil fuels like coal. Tractebel is the biggest private electricity producer. 

 We started our tour at their environmental park. Tractebel built the park to give back to the community and to do something good for the environment. There are about 35,000 trees and 3.5 kilometers of walking trails on the 50 acre parcel of land. Everything at the park is completely free and open to the public. They have a children's playground and a conservation center that has educational programs. 

We then drove to a newer facility (I believe it was built 2 years ago) that Tractebel has built involving solar and wind power. Tractebel has the largest solar power plant in Brazil. This solar and wind facility was developed to gain more knowledge about how these plants operate and how to maintain them. The purpose behind this facility is to figure out what the best technology would be for power in Brazil. 

We then traveled to one of Tractebel's older coal facilities, 1979 being their first year. One of the employees, Vilmar, was able to speak English. He was super excited to be able to communicate with us about what he does for the company. He said that we made his dream come true because he always wanted to be able to tell a tour group of Americans about his work. He said he came to the U.S. and tried to visit an energy company and that they wouldn't let him in. He was so cute and excited that we were there. At the end, he gave us a magazine that he writes on his days off.

We have come to learn that dinner food portions are pretty large here. You should have seen the size of our meals tonight!! We may have to start splitting our meals between two people.