Brazil's state-run energy group Petrobras is looking to produce electricity from sugarcane by 2012, it said Tuesday.

The bio-energy will initially be generated in a 60-megawatt plant in the central town of Britaruma, but eventually "we have the goal of producing between 1,000 and 1,500 megawatts from sugarcane pulp," Petrobras gas and energy director Maria da Graca Foster said.

Petrobras is looking to diversify its electricity generation and increase output over the next four years by 1,774 megawatts, she said.

As well as the initial sugarcane-electricity plant, the company will be building gas-fueled thermal plants to make 548 megawatts, oil-fueled plants with 904 megawatts and hydroelectric plants with 262 megawatts.

The investments total $2 billion, she said.

Petrobras is the seventh-biggest generator of electricity in Brazil. It currently relies on 20 thermal and hydroelectric plants that pump out a total 4,530 megawatts.