Bioenergy in Brazil – from traditional to modern systems - Biomass as Energy Source: Resources, Systems and Applications - page 71

Figure 4.2. Primary energy supply in Brazil, by source 2010 (EPE, 2011a).
the expansion of the energy supply in Brazil continued at high rates in the 1980s, despite the fact
that this is often referred to as the lost decade, due to the low economic growth of the period.
Figure 4.1 shows the development of the Brazilian energy matrix between 1940 and 2010. It is
interesting to notice that biomass still accounted for more than half of Brazil's energy supply in the
early 1970s, mainly in the form of firewood and charcoal. Sugarcane-based bioenergy was limited
to internal uses of residues in the sugar production. Biomass was the most important source of
energy in Brazil until 1973 when it was surpassed by oil. Oil became gradually more important
particularly as road transport was expanding rapidly with the construction of road infrastructure
that was to connect huge extensions of land. The use of gas has only become more significant in
the last decade. Hydropower became the backbone of the Brazilian electricity system, a position
that it still holds with as much as 74% of the country's electricity being generated in hydropower
plants (EPE, 2011a).
Brazil had a total energy supply of 269 million toe in 2010. Figure 4.2 shows the total primary
energy supply by source in 2010. Biomass accounted for 28% of the total energy supply, being the
second largest energy source in the country after oil. Two thirds of that, or 18% of the total supply,
was sugarcane-based. This can be taken as an indicator for the modernization of the bioenergy
segment in Brazil since most of the ethanol production and use in the country is connected to rather
modern supply-and-use chains from agriculture to industrialization all the way to fuel distribution
and utilization. More recently, Brazil has been developing bio-diesel production, an industry that
is also based on modern technologies and applications.
Notably, bioenergy continued growing in the past decades as an important source of energy in
Brazil, with multiple carriers and end-uses. However, there has been a revolutionary change in the
role played by biomass as energy source, and the technologies used. Sugarcane-based energy has
grown as a result of the ethanol program launched in the mid-1970s aimed at gasoline substitution,
and become an important development engine in the Brazilian economy. Meanwhile, the use of
firewood decreased in importance over time as LPG entered the domestic markets for cooking and
the population became more urbanized. Charcoal remained important for metallurgical industries,
although the integration of plants have led to a gradual shift towards imported coal. Still charcoal
is important in the supply chain of the sector, and the traditional character of charcoal production
contrasts with the modern character of the iron and steel mills operating in the country. In absolute
terms, the use of firewood and charcoal decreased by 18% between 1970 and 2010, while the
sugarcane-based energy increased manifold in the same period.
Certainly, the oil price shocks of the 1970s served as incentive to the development of domestic
energy alternatives in Brazil. Oil prices went up fourfold in 1973 at a time when Brazil's total
energy dependency was around 35% (70% for oil), putting a strong pressure on the Brazilian