Wind Energy – Brazil
EDF Renewables has applied for environmental investigations for five offshore wind projects in Brazil, totalling over 10 GW in potential installed capacity.
The developer also plans another 2 GW project in the country in partnership with the Brazilian company Internacional Energias Renováveis.
According to documents from Brazil’s Institute for the Environment and Natural Resources (IBAMA), which is processing the applications, EDF Renewables is looking at 21 MW wind turbines as the preferred technology for the five projects, the smallest of which would have a generation capacity of 1,596 MW.
The proposed offshore wind farms are located in the states of Ceará (1), Piauí (1), and Rio Grande do Sul (3). The project EDF is developing together with Internacional Energias Renováveis is located in Rio Grande do Norte.
In Ceará and Piauí, the French global renewable energy developer plans to build 2,016 MW offshore wind farms, one in each state. In Rio Grande do Sul, the company is proposing three offshore wind farms with installed capacities of 1,596 MW, 1,659 MW and 3,024 MW.
The capacity of the wind turbines for all five projects is given as 21 MW per unit, but the model and manufacturer are not mentioned in the IBAMA documents available online.
The model planned to be used for the joint project in Rio Grande do Norte is GE Vernova’s Haliade-X with a capacity of 12 MW.
Brazil is yet to build its first offshore wind farm (and this might be a 22 MW pilot project by SENAI Institute for Innovation in Renewable Energies) but the industry seems to be highly interested in developing and operating wind farms in Brazilian waters, judging by the number of applications IBAMA has received so far.
