Bioenergy: AREVA strengthens its presence in Brazil

AREVA and Bolognesi Participacoes*, through its subsidiary Hidrotérmica, a Brazilian independent power producer, have signed a master agreement to modernize cogeneration units in 10 sugarcane factories, located primarily in northeast Brazil.

Under the terms of the agreement, AREVA Koblitz, an AREVA’s subsidiary, will supply turnkey services for the units with a total output of 330 MWe that will be sold to the Brazilian grid.

Bolognesi Participacoes will invest €380 million for this project.

A first unit is already under construction and the other nine will be launched during the second half of 2010.

Anil Srivastava, CEO of AREVA Renewables, highlighted: “This deal strengthens our position as leader in engineering services for the global bioenergy market. Today, we are building more than 800 MWe of biomass and hydro production, with orders for an additional 750 MWe in hand. This is further evidence of the bioenergy market’s trust in our ability to meet its rapidly expanding needs”.

Currently, AREVA has engineering teams working for the bioenergy market in Brazil, Europe, South East Asia and United States.

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*The Bolognesi group performs in several different areas, which include public works, highway concessions, water treatment and heavy construction engineering, even including energy generation.

Hidrotérmica S.A., a company of the Bolognesi group, develops projects and studies for the energy market in Brazil. They currently have four Small Hydroelectric Power Plants (SHPP) in operation, plus two under construction. The company has been mainly focused on plants fueled by natural gas in Rio Grande do Sul, but has now decided to invest in biomass.