Financial and environmental incentives: Impact on the potential of BIG-CC technology at the sugar-cane industry

Brazilian sugar-cane industry has potential to produce 2–4 GW of power at competitive basis and up to 2–3 times more if financial and environmental incentives are given. About 2.0 GW can be add to the basic potential considering a carbon offset cost lower than 30 $/t C. Some of the instruments that can be used to deploy this potential are tax credits, loans, project loans guarantees, the creation of green markets and external costs evaluation. Biomass Integrated Gasifier-Combined Cycles (BIG-CC) is the technology considered within the analysis presented in this paper. The results are based on simulations considering cogeneration operation mode during the harvest season and power plant mode otherwise. The potential was calculated considering the Brazilian sugar-cane production during 1995–1996 harvest season (240 million tons).