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Sugarcane agricultural residue (RAC) has a high potential as an energy source to fight global warming. No studies have characterized RAC baling, which is needed for the use of this material as an energy source. To fill this void, we studied the effects of particle size and moisture content on energy consumption and bale density during RAC compaction with laboratory and field tests. Using a theoretical model calibrated with the laboratory tests, the components of the energy consumption of the field tests were determined. The energy consumption tended to rise as the particle size increased in field and laboratory tests (9.13 and 0.9 kJ kg−1). In the field tests, the energy and density increased with moisture for large and small particle sizes. The energy required for bale production was about 6.5 % of the available energy of RAC, which provides a wide range of opportunities to use RAC as a source of renewable energy. These findings may be used to optimize bale compaction. They indicate that RAC is a viable alternative for replacing high-contaminating materials such as coal in energy generation.