Brazil continues to attract global attention for the proficiency with which it continues to transform its technological know-how into meaningful economic initiatives, on this occasion through its proficiency in realizing electricity generation from sugar cane biomas. Across Brazil, sugarcane biomas reportedly accounts for 72% of the country’s overall bio electricity generation. Brazil’s huge biomas production levels is accounted for by the fact that the country is the world’s largest producer of sugarcane, its industry accounting for over 70% of global sugar demand.
Over the years sugar has also been one of the largest contributors to the country’s economic growth. Relatively recent modernization of the 400 plus plants in operation in the country through the adoption of new technologies from planting to the production of sugar, ethanol and bioelectricity has strengthened the sector and enhanced its versatility. A study recently undertaken by UNICA points to an increase in electricity generation from sugarcane biomass by 28.7% in the short term, reaching 1,858,699 MWh or around 3% of all the energy in the country. UNICA’s Bioelectricity Manager, Zilmar Souza, describes the production level as “a quite considerable increase, especially if we take into account that in that period (from January to April) we were practically in sugarcane inter-cultivation.”
He described the extent of the accomplishment as “equivalent to meeting the annual electricity consumption of almost three million people or 8 percent of the country’s gas-fired thermal generation in 2022.”
Brazil has long been one of the world’s ‘heavy hitters’ in bioelectricity generation since the 1980s, with a total of 422 thermoelectric plants using sugarcane bagasse and straw. Sugarcane biomass is reportedly the fourth most important source in the Brazilian electricity matrix, accounting for 6.3% of the country’s installed capacity. All biomasses considered, the installed capacity reportedly amounts to 17,082 MW, which represents 8.8 % of the installed capacity in the Brazilian electricity matrix. A UNICA survey, from 2013 to 2022, stated that the biomass source added 6,914 new MW to the Brazilian electricity matrix.
