Leading offshore wind developers have begun advancing plans for several gigawatts of new offshore wind projects off Brazil.
A spokesperson for Norway’s Equinor told reNEWS it applied to Brazil’s federal environment agency IBAMA this week for permission to carry out an environmental impact assessment that will “look into the possibility of developing an offshore wind project” in waters off the country.
The developer did not give details of its plans, but local media reported the developer is eying an up-to-4.66GW development split across two 2.33GW fields dubbed Aracatu 1 and Aracatu 2.
The projects lie off the neighbouring states of Rio De Janeiro and Espírito Santo in the southeast of the country.
Press reports say the parks will be installed 20km from the shore in waters between 15 and 35 meters deep and that each of the Aracatu fields will hold up to 160 turbines.
Iberdrola’s Brazilian subsidiary Neoenergia meanwhile told reNEWS it has three projects in the licensing phase.
A spokesperson said the company is actively participating “in discussions to define the best regulation to be adopted for the development of offshore wind” in Brazil.
Local media reported that Neoenergia’s developments total some 9GW and are split across the waters off the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro and Ceará
Reports say the developer is considering 15MW turbine hardware with rotors up to 245 metres in diameter for the projects.