Brazil has the potential to deploy as much as 700GW of offshore wind capacity in water depths up to 50 metres, according to analysis by the country’s Energy Research Office (EPE).
EPE, which provides policy advice to Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy, made the estimation in the ‘Roadmap Eolica Offshore Brasil’ report.
The report aims to identify barriers and challenges to the development of offshore wind in the South American country, as well as offer recommendations on planning.
It said more analysis is needed using meteoceanographic data, as well as an assessment of potential restrictions for projects, such as environmental protection areas, commercial shipping routes, areas under consideration for oil exploration and migratory routes of birds.
The report said that there are currently six offshore wind projects totalling 9715MW being considered for environmental licences in the country.
They are the 310MW Caucaia Parazinho project off Ceara comprising a 288MW component featuring 48 6MW turbines and a 22MW semi-offshore part made up of 11 2MW machines.
The 400MW Asa Branca 1 development is also proposed off Ceara and would comprise 10 wind farms of 40MW each, with 8MW turbines.
A 5MW single turbine pilot project is planned off Rio Grande do Norte.
Three 3GW developments made of up of four 750MW wind farms off Cera, Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul are also proposed, each with individual turbines of up to 15MW, EPE said.
However, EPE noted that there is not consensus on whether current regulations in Brazil are sufficient to provide legal certainty for the specific needs for offshore wind development.
The report also said that offshore wind would be more expensive than other sources of energy in the country and so development would require a reduction in the costs related to acquisition of equipment, including turbines, foundations, transmission assets, among others.
Grid connection of large-scale offshore projects could also pose challenges and so work would need to be done to assess network expansion requirements, EPE said.
The roadmap in Portuguese can be found here.