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The city of Aripuana is one of the largest wood producer in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Wood residues are used in the electricity generation at three thermoelectric plants in this region. However, the plants have high costs in transporting the wood residues (due to poor road conditions). Hence, this paper compares the energy performance of wood residues in natura and compacted as briquettes by calculating the heating value and determining the influence of moisture content on the energy characteristics of wood residues. The goal is to demonstrate the viability of using briquettes in order to improve thermoelectric generation. The wood residues from this region are affected by the high humidity of the biome. An alternative to improve the use of energy contained in the wood residues is to produce briquettes with lower humidity. This allows one to maintain high levels of heat energy in a lower volume, facilitating handling and storage. The results show that the use of briquettes improved the performance of thermoelectric plants, generating 1 MW of electricity power with less than 1 ton of briquettes. This contributes to the preservation of the environment, reducing operating costs, transportation and storage of the raw materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]