Ethanol usage up exponentially in U.S. and Brazil; not as much in Europe

For the first time, sugarcane ethanol was a more important energy source for Brazilians (16 percent) than hydroelectricity (14.7 percent). This makes ethanol Brazil's second most-used energy source, right after oil-derived products. The U.S. still produces and consumes a lot of ethanol, with 23.7 percent of America's corn production used to make the biofuel. While these two countries a happily sipping the yellow fuel, the European Union had only a moderate ethanol increase in 2007. Less ethanol was produced in the EU last year, although the difference was compensated by Brazilian imports. Nevertheless, France almost doubled production (up to 578 million liters), which made it the most important European producer, ahead of Germany (394 million liters) and Spain (348 million liters).

[Source: Agra via Energías Renovables]