Rio de Janeiro \u2013 Wind energy is entering a new stage in terms of competitiveness in Brazil, with forecasted investment exceeding 40 billion reals (US$ 19.6 billion) up until 2020. This new stage, which began in 2009, amounts to an added 6.7 gigawatts (GW) of power, at the cost of 100 reals (US$ 49) per megawatt-hour (MWh).<\/p>\n
Brazilian investment in wind energy began in 2004, with subsidies from the Alternative Energy Sources Incentive Program (Proinfa, in the Portuguese acronym). The goal was to come up with new technologies and renewable forms of power generation, including Small Hydroelectric Stations, biomass and wind.<\/p>\n
Wind is the second most competitive source in the country. "Right now, the only cheaper source is large hydroelectric plants,\u201d said the CEO of the Brazilian Wind Energy Association (Abee\u00f3lica), Elbia Melo. Issues pertaining to technology, market and financing will be discussed by industry representatives starting this Wednesday (29th) in Rio de Janeiro, during the 3rd Brazil WindPower. It is the leading event for the industry in Latin America, and will continue until August 31st.<\/p>\n
From 2004 to 2011, 25 billion reals (US$ 12.2 billion) were invested in the Brazilian wind energy industry. The country\u2019s wind power potential amounts to 300 GW and concentrates mainly in the Northeast and South, especially the states of Bahia, Rio Grande do Norte, Cear\u00e1 and Rio Grande do Sul, said Elbia. The figure was revised this year in the light of new technologies implemented. The first survey, conducted in 2001, showed potential for 143 GW to be generated through wind energy. <\/p>\n
In June this year, the wind energy industry completed 2 GW of installed capacity, spread across 71 facilities. By the end of 2016, the goal is to add 8.4 GW of wind power to the national electric system, equivalent to 5.4% of the country\u2019s global energy matrix, as against a current 1.5%. \u201cIt grows as the years go by and should reach 15% by 2020, if we keep our current pace.\u201d Approximately 2 GW are expected to be sold at auctions each year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wind energy scenario is quite favourable in terms of future outlook, because in addition to adding this new source to the matrix, we have brought in the production chain, the supply chain as a whole,\u201d she said. Because it is a capital- and technology-intensive source, the number of equipment manufacturers in Brazil went from two in 2008 to 11 last year.<\/p>\n
Technology issues explain the strong competitiveness of wind energy, said Elbia. The wind energy production towers, which were 50 metres high as of 2009, are now 100 metres high. She said this change has improved the volume of wind captured and the productivity, bringing down production costs.<\/p>\n
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The sum will be invested up until 2020 in order to increase industry competitiveness. The only cheaper energy in Brazil today is the type generated at major hydroelectric plants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2315,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-42447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sustainability"},"wps_subtitle":"The sum will be invested up until 2020 in order to increase industry competitiveness. The only cheaper energy in Brazil today is the type generated at major hydroelectric plants.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}