Wind energy has burst onto the scene in Brazil in recent years and has climbed to eighth place in the world ranking, with an installed capacity that has multiplied fifteenfold in the last decade.
09/07/2019
Periodicodelaenergia.com
The South American giant has gone from 1 GW of installed capacity in 2010 to 15.1 GW this year, distributed in 600 wind farms in 12 Brazilian states, according to the latest data from the Brazilian Wind Energy Association (ABEEólica).
Wind energy has gained ground and currently represents 9.2% of the national electricity matrix, behind only hydro, with 60.3%.
Despite its solid progress, this renewable energy source still has a wide window of growth in the country, according to specialists, and it is expected that in 2023 there will be about 19.4 GW of installed wind capacity, taking into account auctions already held and contracts signed in the free market.
“We have a very big growth perspective. We see that wind and solar are the sources that are going to grow most in Brazil in the next thirty years,” Elbia Silva Gannoum, president of ABEEólica, told Efe.
Despite the achievements made in recent years, thanks to improved technology, competitiveness and good prospects for the future, Silva stressed that the weakened situation of Brazil’s economy has slowed the sector’s total take-off by reducing energy contracting in regulated auctions.
Brazil entered a deep recession between 2015 and 2016, when its gross domestic product (GDP) lost about seven percentage points, and between 2017 and 2018 the economy grew by only 2%.
Forecasts for this year remain weak and, according to financial market projections, the South American giant’s GDP will rise by a timid 0.8% in 2019.
“The economy is hindering, when there is economic growth we are going to see a greater growth of the sector. Even so, we have a market in the average growing enough and with a very good future perspective”, added the president of ABEEólica.
The northeast region concentrates most of the wind farms in Brazil, a country with favorable climatic conditions, irrigated by a regular and intense wind, and where wind turbines have proliferated.
In the municipality of Rio do Fogo, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, is the first Iberdrola facility in the development of renewable energy in that country, inaugurated in 2006, and represents the starting point of a venture that has expanded strongly in the last decade.
Iberdrola, present in the South American country through its subsidiary Neoenergia, has 17 wind farms in operation, distributed in the states of Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba and Bahia (northeast), with an installed power of 516 megawatts (MW), and has another 15 under construction.
With the completion of the implementation of all projects, Iberdrola’s portfolio of operating assets in wind energy will total around 1 GW in 2022.
The growth of Iberdrola’s wind projects in Brazil has accompanied the sector’s own growth in the country, where there is already a national production chain, with six turbine manufacturers on Brazilian soil.
“These sources have undergone technological changes that increase their productivity and can compete with the cheapest source, the hydroelectric, whose resources are being exhausted,” said Silva.
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