Biomass power plant in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Approximate location -21.2276, -50.7655.
BiomassSao PauloBrazilOperação
Benálcool is a 4 MW biomass power plant in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 5.8k homes (estimated). It ranks #1692 of 2,572 Brazil power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2008, it is around 18 years old — relatively modern. In context, biomass supplies about 7.3% of Brazil's electricity; the national grid averages 110 gCO₂/kWh (88.7% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id BRA0027906.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: ANEEL SIGA official registry; fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 4 MW, Benálcool is below the median biomass plant in Brazil (15 MW). Its current lifecycle status is “Operação” — so it is not yet, or no longer, generating at full output. Biomass plants burn organic material such as wood, residues or waste-derived fuel to raise steam; they are dispatchable and counted as low-carbon where the feedstock is sustainably sourced.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
This biomass plant burns organic material (wood, residues) to raise steam for a turbine. It sits in a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 21.2°S — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
This site has effectively no heating season (tropical/equatorial climate), so winter heat loss is not the driver here. The thermal concern shifts to year-round process heat and humidity/heat-driven corrosion of hot equipment.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a moderately corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C3 — Medium), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #426 largest biomass power plant of 547 in Brazil by capacity.
Brazil has 547 biomass power plants in this dataset, together about 17,205 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -21.2276, -50.7655 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Benálcool is a 4 MW source-record biomass power plant in Sao Paulo, Brazil, commissioned in 2008.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 5,781 homes (estimated).
