|
Petroleum, which accounts for 43.1% of the Brazilian energy matrix, will continue as the main source of energy for transport in the next three decades and there is no substitute in sight on a short term.
This statement was made by Mauro Guilherme Jardim Arce, secretary of Energy of São Paulo, state in the southeast of Brazil. According to him, alcohol - which comes from sugar cane or other components of Brazilian biomass - would be the most adequate substitute, but it is still necessary to advance in technology. Arce was responsible for the opening lecture for the Seminar of Energy Technologies of the Future (Stef), which took place, Monday, May 8, in the Integrated Center for Businessmen and Workers of the State of Paraná (Cietep), in Curitiba, capital city of that state, in southern Brazil. According to the coordinator of the event, Frederico Reichmann Neto, the idea of the event is to identify measures on the short, medium and long terms to reverse the trend of a collapse in the supply, foreseen for 2010. "All it takes is for Brazil to restart its growth of 4% in the GDP per year that there will be an energy shortage," he alerted. The president of the Federation of Industries of the State of Paraná (Fiep), Rodrigo da Rocha Loures, recalled that Brazil has all conditions to take the lead in energy supply, a strategic area as demand grows in the whole world, offering great opportunities for business in the country. Arce emphasized that the greatest energy reserves in the world are in coal, but the challenge is in exploiting the resource in a clean way. "You cannot produce energy without causing some kind of impact in the environment," he remarked. According to him, the challenge lays in making this impact the smallest possible. The meeting, which ends this Tuesday, May 9, gathers specialists from the entire country and abroad. The seminar is a joint promotion by the Federation of Industries of the State of Paraná (Fiep), Copel (the Paraná Energy Company), Government of the State of Paraná, Lactec (Technology Institute for Development), Brazilian Institute for Quality and Productivity and Paraná Institute for Development, with support from the Itaipu Binacional Hydroelectric Energy Plant, Eletrobrás (Brazilian Energy Company) and Compagás (Paraná Gas Company). Omar Nasser works for Fiep, Federation of Industries of the State of Paraná Anba - www.anba.com.br
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
Almost is because ethanol will never replace gasoline, not even in 3 decades.
Never heard of Fuel cell engines (hydrogen) ? They are already built in small numbers.
I also remind everyone that the USA and many countries have vast reserves of coal.
Just keep the oil price going up and coal will become competitive again !