Alternative energy reflection

During the course of our time in Brazil we have visited a number of alternative energy plants and spent numerous hours learning about the state of alternative energy in today's day and age.
In the beginning of this trip I mainly only knew about solar energy and solar panels in particular. I understood their
Inefficiency and limitations but what i didn't yet know is what causes those limitations and all of the different factors that go into maximizing solar panel efficiency, such as the direction they face. I understand that there's so much room to grow with solar panels but we have to find a better material to help capture the electrons- to look into more than just silicon as the material used in the panels.
From our trips, readings, and discussions, I've learned about hydroelectricity. I knew that Brazil had 80% of its economy running on alternative energy with hydroelectricity being its main source but I never knew why. Once we went on our plant visit to Todon I learned of the magnitude of electricity that can be produced (up to 400+ kWh of electricity!) however hydroelectricity is usually set up to only meet the demand of electricity and not to store electricity. so there's still a lot to explore in terms of efficiently capturing and storing the electricity.
Before coming to Brazil I didn't know anything about ethanol and its production. Thus when we visited the plant and read about it I learned about how it's made and just how big the process is to go from corn or sugar cane to ethanol or electricity. I was stunned by the inefficiency of biomass as an electricity source and fuel source. I also never realized just how many steps are necessary to go from an original source such as biomass or sunlight and end up with electricity. With every step of the way, efficiency is lost as energy is lost.
Alternative energy is a vast field with many opportunities in terms of discovering new technology to greater maximize our efficiency in electricity generation. I'm happy to have been able to learn so much from this course and our visits. There are so many more aspects of my gained knowledge of alternative energy that this single blog post cannot capture. I'm very excited to see how alternative energy will play a role in my life and what else we'll learn in the remainder of this trip.