His presentation was interesting, and there was time to ask him questions afterward. This could get dense, so if you don't like numbers you may just want to skim.
First off, Brazil gets way more of its energy from renewable sources than we do in the U.S. As a country, Brazil gets 45% of its energy from renewables, which are primarily sugar cane products (18%), hydroelectric power (14%), wood and charcoal (10%), and other renewables, such as wind (4%).
Sao Paulo is even slightly better (55% from renewables), with the increase coming from sugar cane.
If the U.S. was on here, we'd be at about 12% renewable, the majority being hydroelectric plants.
The U.S. doesn't have as extensive of a river network as Brazil does, and we don't have the right climate to grow sugar cane (we have corn, but that's nowhere near as good). So this somewhat explains why we're so far behind. But the U.S. still has plenty of land and potential for renewable energy.
Sao Paulo's goal is to further increase their share of renewables from 55% to 69% by 2020. It's called the Paulista Energy Plan (PEP). It's ambitious.
Most of the increase comes from sugar cane, (of which the state of Sao Paulo produces 18% of the worldwide supply! Half goes to food, and half goes to fuel.) I asked if there was a economic effect from diverting a food crop to be used to make fuel, (which happened in the U.S. with corn, prices increased and the idea quickly lost popularity), and if Brazil or Sao Paulo State had enacted polices to counter this price increase. However, he informed us that Brazil has so much land that this kind of diversion wasn't required, and there really wasn't an issue like that here in SP.
He talked about how to get more energy out of the sugar cane by retrofitting plants to use more parts of the cane, like the pontas and palha. Also, for every 1 liter of ethanol produced, there is 13.5 liters of a by-product fluid called vinhaca (pronounced vinyaza), which can't be used as is, but can be converted into a biogas that is identical in composition to natural gas. If fully utilized it could provide 2.25 GW of additional power to Sao Paulo, replacing about 35% of their current natural gas demand.
He then went through each of the conventional renewable technologies and described their potential in SP.
Eolico -- Wind
None currently in SP state, though Brazil has wind power. It's concentrated in the northeast part of the country because its windier there. Wind speeds should be on average 6.5 m/s (14mph) for a area to be suitable. There are several spots in SP that meet this criteria, but the cost of land is higher there than where the existing turbines are in the NE.
Solar -- Solar
SP has just the one PV plant in Tanquinho that we visited, which has a tiny capacity of 1.1 MWp. Germany currently leads the world in solar energy production, but Brazil has a higher potential than either Germany or the U.S. due to its proximity to the Equator. SP accesses that their sunny areas in the interior of the state could provide 9.1 GWp of energy if fully developed. However, solar technology still too expensive, especially photovoltaics. Small scale, off-grid usage of solar thermal, and some photovoltaic is much more likely in the near term. They are also looking at installing panels on buildings with large flat roofs, like schools, supermarkets, and department stores. Habib's, a popular arab fast food chain, has announced that they are considering installing PV panels on all their stores roofs.
Hydroelectrica -- Hydroelectric power is relatively maxed out in SP, according to the Secretary. There is also strong resistance from environmental groups in creating large new dams or rerouting water flows. Small-scale projects are in progress however, and more potential is seen in these small hydro plants.
Transportation
Responsible for vast majority of SP's carbon emissions. The 2010 demand was 40% diesel, 38% ethanol, 20% gasonline, 2% biodiesel. They are trying to cut gasoline and diesel in half by 2020, and make up for the difference with an increase in ethanol. I asked about electric vehicles, since I noticed no mention of them, but he said that they have had enough difficulty preventing brownouts from lack of supply, and they wouldn't be able to take on the extra demand from electrifying transport. They are, however, negotiating with Toyota about an ethanol-electric hybrid, that would be pretty interesting.
There were recently large reserves of oil and natural gas found in Brazil, which has made the Secretary's job of convincing people to invest in wind, solar, and biofuels somewhat more difficult.
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