Rhodia invests in biomass with an eye on energy auctions
DCI
The international chemical group Rhodia started taking the first steps to start the operation of a new business unit in the country: electric energy. With an investment of EUR 70 million, the company foresees generating, as of May 2012, nearly 70 MW of electricity from the sugarcane bagasse in an agreement entered into with Paraíso Bioenegia, based in Brotas, interior of São Paulo. The plant will supply all the straw for the cogeneration unit in a system of exclusivity. "This is a new front for us and Brazil has great potential with all the production of sugarcane and ethanol there is around here", said the President of the company for South America, Marcos De Marchi.
According to the Executive, the energy generated as of 2012 still has no specific destination. Initially, the idea is to have most of the electricity sold to the Brazilian national electricity system; the Paraíso plant will also be supplied with electricity and steam from the new unit. The company, of French origin, however, also evaluates whether the input can be used internally, in the productive processes of Rhodia, placed on the open market or in the auctions of alternative sources promoted by the National Agency of Electric Energy (Aneel).
"This new unit in Brazil already exists abroad, it is Rhodia Energy Services. The investment announced is a first step to consolidate the unit here", said the Executive. "The volume we will be able to generate supplies nearly 200 thousand homes and it will be available for our operations. Now, whether we will use it internally or we will sell it, that is a matter of market which still has to be analyzed when the generation starts, in 2012", he completed.
Until then, De Marchi said the company will continue growing with the chemistry, which is resuming the vigor lost in 2009 because of the international crisis. Last year, the company, which had been increasing its earnings at average levels near 20%, kept its numbers at the same level of 2008. "Between 2004 and 2008 we increased our earnings by 100% in Brazil, and this year we resumed the same direction", he said, without disclosing numbers. "The growth this year will not stay at a one digit rate only", summarized De Marchi.
Of all areas Rhodia operates, no one has presented performance far superior to the others. According to De Marchi, solvents, engineering plastics, silica and textiles did well due to the increase of the internal consumption. Besides, the exports of Rhodia to Latin America, which represent 25% of the entire production, presented good numbers, "even Mexico, after a fall of 8% in its GDP, has presented good performance", he added. For 2011 the perspective is the maintenance of the performance because of the growth of the industrial demand, initially estimated at 5% compared to the result this year.