Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply - Embrapa

The most promising of all fossil sources of energy is natural gas, because
of the possibility of expanding its production and the fact that it is the "cleanest"
energy. Nevertheless, natural gas spatial distribution is not homogeneous and
demands large investments in infrastructure, complex international
agreements and technological innovations in distribution. Furthermore, natural
gas is particularly affected by political disputes because it depends on high
fixed-cost pipelines that cannot be used for other purposes, tying clients to
arbitrary political decisions and contract noncompliance on the part of
government leaders and officials.
The use of nuclear energy should continue to be limited by safety issues
and low acceptance by public opinion, which means that the search for safer
technologies must continue.
Renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind energy should
continue to meet a growing part of the demand, mostly outside the USA at the
outset. Environmental and supply security considerations should strengthen the
growth of renewable energy sources, including biomass, throughout the world.
As a rule, economic growth and environmental protection will drive
changes and restrain the growth of the energy sector. If the world decides to
maintain the atmospheric carbon concentration at the current 550 ppm level,
a good part of the energy will not contain fossil carbon in the future, but fossil
fuel exploitation will be much more efficient, whenever used.
In the next decades, biomass will become the basis of renewable energy
and a valuable input for the chemical industry. The experts believe that energy
from biomass will account for the better part of the revenues from international
agricultural transactions beginning in 2050.
In certain cases, the growth of energy agriculture will also drive food
production increases. For example, the expansion of crops such as soybean and
sunflower for energy purposes would necessarily signify an increased supply of
cakes and bran, one of the raw materials in the food and feed industries.
Portability, storage capacity and energy density are important attributes
that help consolidate and broaden the share of an energy source in the energy
matrix. Ethanol and biodiesel, for example, have portability, which facilitates
their transportation to and storage in foreign countries, as opposed to electric
power, which has transmission limitations. Biodiesel has the same
characteristics of alcohol, but greater density, which reduces the relative
transportation and storage costs, as measure by the potential energy per unit
of volume or weight.
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