SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS OF A BIOMAS-ORIGIN COGENERATION PROGRAM. THE BRAZILIAN EXPERIENCE.

ABSTRACT: During last decades Brazilian electric sector has suffered a huge financial crisis, such situation does not allowing the investments needed to guarantee energy supply. Besides that, electricity consumption is growing significantly since 1994 due to the monetary stabilisation policy introduced by Federal Government. Recent official planning [1] considers the construction of new thermal plants in short term, to avoid the risks the deficit, but it depends upon the participation of private investments, which are possible now, due to the sector’s privatisation. Regarding this situation, the purchase of surplus electricity from cogenerators, like sugar/alcohol or pulp/paper plants, is a feasible and important option to complement the energy offer. The objective of this paper is to present a social and political overview of the situation and existing barriers of biomass-origin cogeneration, mainly from sugarcane bagasse. The strategic and environmental advantages as well as the existing economic and political barriers of a large scale cogeneration program in Brazil are discussed here, including the points of view of the involved actors. From this discussion, strategies are discussed to reduce those barriers and to implement a cogeneration program from sugarcane origin in Brazil