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New Energy World™
New Energy World™ embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low-carbon technologies.
Brazil’s unique energy industry landscape
22/2/2023
6 min read
Feature
Letícia Dantas, Head of Innovation and New Ventures at Comgás, discusses the country’s vibrant and evolving energy market, including efforts by Brazil’s largest gas distributor to reduce emissions.
The Brazilian energy landscape is very different from most of the rest of the world. Although energy consumption from non-renewable sources remains higher than from renewable sources, we use more renewables than in the majority of other countries.
Brazil’s electricity generation is even greener than overall energy generation, due to the significant role played by hydroelectric plants and thanks to a large recent growth in wind capacity. Combining firewood and charcoal (8.7%), hydraulics (11%), sugarcane derivatives (16.4%) and other renewables (8.7%), our renewables total 44.8%, almost half of our energy matrix, according to 2022 data from Empresa de Pesquisa Energética (EPE) – Brazil’s Energy Research Office. In contrast, the consumption of natural gas represents just 13%.
The main electrical power companies in Brazil are AES, Cemig, CPFL, Copel, EDP, Eletrobras, Eneva, Energisa, Engie, Equatorial, Light, Neoenergia, Ômega, Taesa and Transmissão Paulista. In the gas and energy sector, the Cosan Group stands out for its portfolio which includes:
- Raizen, one of the largest traders in the country with a strong operation of distributed solar generation and some biogas plants.
- Compass Gás e Energia, which has 19 gas distributors in its portfolio, practically 100% of all gas distributors in Brazil, including Comgás – the largest distributor in the country, with over 20,000 km of network and 2.5 million customers.