¿PUEDE CONVERTIRSE PERU EN UNA POTENCIA EXPORTADORA DE ETANOL HACIA ESTADOS UNIDOS?

Coming Soon: Peru Exports Fuel to the U.S. February 23, 2009 at 12:16 AM
Ethanol from sugarcane will likely flow into this country in a few years, thanks to favorable weather conditions and legal loopholes.
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That’s the prediction from Roger Ballentine, who heads up the consulting firm Green Strategies. Ballentine also served as chairman of the White House Climate Change Task Force and Deputy Assistant to the President for Environmental Initiatives under Bill Clinton.
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“Sugarcane ethanol is the missing link between corn and cellulosic ethanol,” he said. “Sugarcane is more environmentally beneficial and economical than corn and, on the flip side, we know how to do it.”
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Among other advantages, sugarcane has an energy balance close to 8 (one unit of energy in — eight out.) Corn is closer to 1.6. Cellulosic backers say they can get up to 22, but they are still in the experimental phase.
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Buy why Peru? Sugarcane can be grown there on a year-round basis, which boosts the gallons of fuel that can be extracted per year per acre. In seasonal Brazil, sugarcane produces about 650 gallons per acre. Additionally, the U.S. tariffs on sugarcane ethanol don’t apply to Peru, only Brazil, he said. Hence, you have a cheaper product (because of the longer growing season) that avoids a tax.
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Ballentine’s interest is more than academic. A client, Stratos Renewables, is building a Peruvian sugarcane plant that hopes to bring fuel to the U.S.
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Other things on Roger’s mind:
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State governments are going to be hit with a whirlwind of funds in about six months. Some will be ready for the onslaught. Others will flounder for a while.
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Like Steve Chu, Barack Obama and nearly every utility CEO, he’s a fan of spending on efficiency first and green power generation second. “You tend to get the most greenhouse gas reduction per dollar and you create a sustainable economic asset,” he said.
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Efficiency can also create jobs. Lennox, the air conditioning company, recently hired around 80 people to help it assemble a high-efficiency air conditioner designed for Wal-Mart. For years, the knock (or fear) about efficiency is that it would be tough to make money off of it. “Even in a down economy, it (efficiency) makes a lot of sense,” he said.
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He’s also a fan of generating power from waste heat, one of our favorite alternative energy sources here. Ballentine consults for China Energy Recovery, which retrofits factories to capture waste heat in China.