Today we were able to tour CEZ, a power company providing energy to a large part of the Czech Republic. There were many different social and environmental responsibilities we discussed during our tour. There were social responsibilities to reliability provide power to those who are supported and pay for the services of CEZ. CEZ has a multitude of different power plants like solar, wind, coal, and Nuclear. Through these different methods they are able to reliably provide power, predicting the power needs of the Czech Republic. Beyond societal expectations, there are environmental responsibilities to recultivate land near mines after they are finished mining. The Czech is dedicated to balancing the power needs and supporting the environment. There are strict regulations in place to help reduce harmful emissions and promote vegetation growth. After visiting CEZ today I was extremely impressed with the scale and complexity of the power plant. The amount of collaboration between different company products to produce such a large power plant reinforces the ideals of planning in engineering. I previously assumed that working in engineering for things of this scale there would be the expectation that it would last a life time. This plant challenged my assumption with parts of the plant meant to last much less time. Additionally, this tour reinforced my assumption that engineering takes an obscene amount of time and planning.
Swanson School of Engineering 