Use of wastes as option for the mitigation of CO 2 emissions in the Brazilian power sector Luciano Basto Oliveira a , Rachel Martins Henriques a , Amaro Olimpio Pereira Jr. b, * a Virtual Institute of Climate Change (IVIG/COPPE/UFRJ), Caixa Postal 68565, CEP 21945-970, Ilha do Funda˜o, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil b Center for Integrated Studies of the Environment and Climate Change (CentroClima/COPPE/UFRJ), Caixa Postal 68565, CEP 21945-970, Ilha do Funda˜o, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 3247 2. Reference scenario ............................................................................................... 3248 3. Alternative scenarios ............................................................................................. 3249 4. Marginal abatement cost curve ..................................................................................... 3249 5. Concluding remarks .............................................................................................. 3250 References ..................................................................................................... 3251 1. Introduction Brazil enjoys a wide variety of climate conditions and the planet’s greatest biodiversity. These characteristics bring the country considerable advantage in terms of availability of renewable natural resources, allowing the energy sector in general, and the electrical in particular, to have much lower emissions rates compared with the rest of the world (see [15]). Various studies, however, such as that of the EPE (Brazilian Bureau of Energy Studies, 2007) [3], the International Energy Agency [8], the European Commission [4] and the study prepared for UNEP by the Center for Integrated Studies of the Environment and Climate Change–CentroClima/COPPE/UFRJ [10], show that electricity consumption will increase at a rate superior to 3% per year until 2030, which will require the current installed capacity to be increased by 100 GW. Such expansion will demand that the country seizes upon all available sources to guarantee this supply for the population. Having this in mind and taking a long term perspective, various courses of action are open to meet the growing demand for electrical energy. Should Brazil decide to maintain the current high hydroelectric participation in the electric sector it will need to increase the supply from the North, a region of high potential but also of great environmental sensitivity. If it is decided to expand fossil fuel use considerable investment will be required in coal, natural gas and petroleum extraction as well as processing. In this case the country would be failing to make full use of its advantage in having a generating system with predominance of renewable sources. There is, moreover, the possibility of an increase in the nuclear program which also requires considerable financial investment, both in R&D and in infrastructure, in uranium prospection and processing and in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 14 (2010) 3247–3251 ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 12 May 2010 Accepted 14 July 2010 Keywords: CO 2 mitigation Electricity generation Marginal abatement cost curves ABSTRACT The present study presents an analysis of the options available for the mitigation of CO 2 emissions in the Brazilian power sector. The objective is to verify the potential use of wastes for electrical energy generation and its competitiveness in comparison with other sources of renewable energy. A comparison was made using marginal abatement cost curves derived from a reference scenario obtained from earlier studies dealing with the expansion of the Brazilian power sector. The results showed that the availability of wastes is significant and that they can be used at a cost 20–60% lower than that of wind power generation, a subsidized source of energy in Brazil. It can therefore be concluded that it would be more efficient if incentives were applied to the use of wastes for electrical power generation since it offers socio-environmental benefits which go far beyond the reduction of CO 2 emissions. ß 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 21 3512 3182; fax: +55 21 3512 3199. E-mail address: amaro@ppe.ufrj.br (A.O. Pereira Jr.). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser 1364-0321/$ – see front matter ß 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2010.07.018