Vanessa Dezem Sao Paulo
BRAZIL, the world’s cleanest energy user, is getting dirtier.
The government is seeking to award contracts in an auction today for natural gas- and coal-fuelled power plants, reversing a drive that previously favoured renewable-energy projects. It would lead to the first new thermal plants in three years, after the government scaled back such projects and awarded wind contracts starting in 2009 and solar energy earlier this year.
Thermal plants, which are faster and easier to build and open than wind or hydroelectric facilities, will be used as a stopgap to ensure energy supplies after the worst drought in eight decades dried up reservoirs at hydro-dams that produce 70 percent of Brazil’s power.
BNP Paribas and consultant Thymos Energia said that without the extra energy supplies, Brazil might be forced to ration power as soon as next year if the drought continued.
“Coal and gas plants can meet an urgent need,” said Bernardo Bezerra, a manager at energy consultant PSR.
“The big question mark is: Is it worth contracting an expensive source of energy for so many years, when you have cheaper and cleaner sources available like wind simply because of a short-term need?”
Brazil’s energy research and planning agency, known as EPE, says it is. “It’s important for the security of the system that we have more thermal energy – it was because of thermal that we avoided rationing last year,” said Jose Carlos de Miranda Farias, EPE director of electric energy research.
“We need to guarantee supplies to Brazilian consumers who refuse to deal with energy shortages of even half an hour.”
Using fossil fuels at a time of need highlights tensions facing Brazilian policymakers as they join UN talks next week aimed at limiting global warming. While envoys from 190 nations are pushing for an agreement next year to limit fossil-fuel emissions, Brazil may need to boost emissions to stabilise its power market and meet growing demand.
Brazil, the biggest polluter in Latin America, had a 6.7 percent jump in carbon emissions last year, according to data from BP. That was the fastest increase worldwide after Qatar, Colombia and the Philippines. A spokesman for Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy was not immediately available to comment.
For the world to meet its goals of limiting global warming, Brazil would have to cut carbon emissions an average of 0.9 percent a year until 2040, the International Energy Agency estimates. – Bloomberg