Wind energy generation projects in Brazilian waters already add up to 80 gigawatts (GW) of power, according to data from January 27 from Ibama. The growth is significant compared to last year: in July, projects totaled 42 GW.
The value is almost four times the current installed capacity of onshore projects in Brazil, which in January reached the 21 GW mark.
This month alone, 12 new projects with offshore wind turbines, for a total of just over 25 GW of power, applied for licenses from Ibama.
In total, the 80 GW under development are distributed in 36 projects in six states. Of this total, 15 wind farms overlap or have wind turbines planned to be less than 2,000 meters from wind turbines with an older licensing process.
One of the bottlenecks for these projects to take off, regulation, began to walk this week.
The Brazilian government issued a decree on Tuesday (1/25) to regulate offshore wind power generation. The measure was well received by the governments of Ceará and Rio de Janeiro.
The two states have several offshore wind projects under license in IBAMA and believe this is an important step for them to be implemented.
Ceara
There are seven: Caucaia (BI Energia), Jangada (Neoenergia), Camocim (BI Energia), Dragão do Mar (Qair), Alpha (Veritas), Costa Nordeste (Geradora Eólica Brigadeiro) and Asa Branca I (Eólica Brasil).
Alpha Park is the largest wind farm in the state and the second largest in terms of licenses in Brazil.
In September 2021, the group applied for a license for 400 wind turbines of 15 MW of power each, totaling 6 GW.
The Qair wind project also stands out.
In July, the multinational Qair Brasil signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Ceará for the production of green hydrogen, in the hub that is articulated in the Pecém Industrial and Port Complex.
Qair projects a capacity of 2.2 GW for the production of green hydrogen, through electrolysis, and will use the electricity generated at the Dragão do Mar Offshore Wind Complex and an offshore wind farm.
The licensed project at Ibama will have 128 turbines, totaling 1.2 GW of power.
The state has an overlapping project: Costa Nordeste, which applied for the license this year, is located very close to three other projects.
Holy Spirit
There are three projects under license, totaling 3.1 GW, all overlapping.
The Votu Winds wind farm is the largest, with 1,440 MW of power, from the installation of 144 wind turbines of 10 MW of power each.
Piaui
Two parks. Vento Tupi, owned by OW Offshore (Ocean Winds), Engie and EDP, licenses the installation of 74 wind turbines 14 kilometers from the coast, to generate 999 MW of power.
Palmas do Mar, owned by Bosford Participações, will have 93 wind turbines, generating a total of 1,395 MW.
The demarcation of the Ventos Tupi and Palmas do Mar areas is very narrow, with a slight overlap.
Rio de Janeiro
The state concentrates almost 21.5 GW of power in the seven parks under license.
Ventos do Atlântico, owned by OW Offshore, is the largest in Rio and the third largest in the country, with 371 wind turbines and just over 5 GW of power.
Next comes Equinor’s Aracatu wind farm, with 3.8 GW of capacity and 320 turbines.
Bluefloat Energy’s Bromélia is expected to occupy an area that overlaps with Equinor’s park and with another Bluefloat company, Quaresmeira.
The group filed license applications this year.
Read in epbr: Porto do Açu licenses 2 GW of offshore wind power in Rio de JaneiroGreat North River
Of the seven licensed parks, five compete for the same area in Rio Grande do Norte.
Pedra Grande (operated by BI Energia, with 624 MW of power), Maral (OW Offshore, 2 GW), Alisios Potiguares (Bosford, 1.8 GW), Ventos Potiguar (Internacional Energias, 2.4 GW) and Cattleya (Bluefloat Energy, 1.2 GW) ) have overlapping designs.
Rio Grande do Sul
This year alone, five companies applied for licenses with Ibama. Three are from Geradora Eólica Brigadeiro, two from Bluefloat Energy.
The state has the largest number of licensed projects, with 10 parks totaling around 23.6 GW of power. Of these, seven have some level of overlap.
The largest wind farm is Ventos do Sul, owned by OW Offshore. With 6.5 GW and 482 wind turbines located 21 kilometers from the coast, it is also the largest in Brazil so far.
