Sep 09, 2010
Sugarcane Producers in Brazil Promoting Bioelectricity
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
A lot of concerns are being raised in Brazil concerning various plans to build new hydroelectric dams in the Amazon Region. These concerns include: displacement of indigenous people, disruption of native cultures, flooding of huge areas of rain forest, environmental degradation, high cost of construction, expensive electricity, and the need to build new transmission lines from northern Brazil to southern Brazil where the electricity is needed. The sugarcane producers in southern Brazil have noted these concerns and they feel that they have a much better way to generate the needed electrical supplies.
Currently, there are approximately 440 sugar mills in Brazil and new mills are brought on line every year. About one hundred of those mills use sugarcane stalks to produce electricity in excess of what is needed to run the mill and they sell the excess electricity back into the electrical grid. Approximately 4.8% of Brazil's electrical needs are currently being generated in this manor and the sugarcane producers feel that their mills could generate 14% of Brazil's electrical needs by the year 2020, thus eliminating the need for at least three new hydroelectric dams.
According to The Union of Sugarcane Industries in the State of Sao Paulo (Unica), the advantages of this bioelectricity generated from sugarcane include: utilization of existing infrastructure, no environmental degradation, no displacement of indigenous people, bioelectricity is green energy with limited green house gas emissions, and this electricity could be produced close to population centers in southern Brazil thus eliminating the need for additional transmission lines.
Another big advantage for sugarcane generated electricity is the fact that sugarcane is generally harvested between April and November, which is also the driest time of the year in Brazil. During the dry season in Brazil, many reservoirs are at their low point of the year and hydroelectric dams cut back on their generating capacity in order to economize water. Sugarcane generated electricity would peak at the very time of the year when hydroelectric plants cut back on their generating capacity.
One of the big obstacles to bioelectricity is the high cost of the equipment needed to connect the sugar mill to the existing power grid. The cost of the connecting equipment can be as much as 30% of the entire cost of building the co-generation plant. The sugar mill operators feel that instead of building expensive hydroelectric dams in the middle of the Amazon, the money could be better spent hooking up existing sugar mills to the power grid. These plants could be up and running in a fraction of the time needed to build huge hydroelectric dams.
Currently, 80% of Brazil's electricity is being generated by hydroelectric dams and sugarcane production in Brazil is expected to increase 70% over the next ten years.