The Jalles Machado sugar mill in Brazil’s Goias state has signed a R53mn (US$14mn) loan with national development bank BNDES to fund a biomass-fuelled co-generation project.

Jalles Machado presently generates 10MW, of which it uses 6MW itself and sells the remaining 4MW.

The expansion will take generating capacity to 29MW, of which distributor CPFL will buy 10-14MW for R71/MWh under a 10-year power purchase agreement.