The so-called "wind charter" is aimed at developing public policies and setting targets for the production of wind energy, which currently accounts for less than 1% of the power generated in South America’s largest country. It also establishes goals for raising funds, formulating public policies and creating incentives for developing wind power.
Environment Minister Carlos Minc said: "We set goals and outlined financing and regulatory frameworks, and we won’t miss the wind power train again." Minc was one of the signatories of the "wind charter" at the end of a two-day National Wind Energy Forum held mid-June in Natal and attended by the state energy secretaries, legislators, national authorities and members of the business community.
The minister said that the Government planned to gradually eliminate all taxes on wind power-generating equipment. The first step in that direction was the announcement of the first auction of licenses for developing wind energy, scheduled for 25 November 2009. Minc announced that his ministry would also propose that the government hold such auctions every year, and that the permits be increased from a power generation capacity of 2,000 MW to 3,000 MW. However, Minc said it was "shameful" that a country like Brazil, which has the biggest wind energy potential in the region, only produces a mere 200 MW of wind power at present.
Enerfin, a unit of Spain's Elecnor, operates the biggest wind park in Brazil, the 150 MW Osorio complex in Rio Grande do Sul state, through Brazilian firm Ventos do Sul, and plans to double its capacity. While SIIF Energies do Brasil, owned by Citigroup, Liberty Mutual and Black River is investing around $840 million to construct five wind farms in Brazil, four in Ceara state and one in Rio de Janeiro, with a total capacity of 342 MW. SIIF Energies do Brasil is also developing 16 new projects in Brazil to participate in the 2009 auction.
Water, wind and plenty of it
The short-term outlook for Brazil is to increase total wind power generation capacity to 30,000 or 40,000 MW, but the potential is much greater than that. According to the latest wind atlas, Brazil has approximately 140,000 MW of potential wind power, although the Brazilian Wind Industry Association has gone further, estimating a very significant 300,000 MW, which according to the association’s president, Lauro Fiuza, represents three times the current capacity of all energy sources in Brazil.
“We have known for a long time that Brazil had a huge wind potential,” says Jorge Lima of the state electricity utility, Eletrobras. “We wanted to maintain the tradition of clean energy in our electricity mix and wind has great potential to contribute to the growth in electricity supply in our country,” says Jorge Lima. “It should play a very important role in the next ten years.”
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Brazil is the world’s largest renewable energy market, with around 46% of the country’s energy coming from renewable sources, which represent 85% of its power generation capacity due to its vast hydropower resources and its decades-old ethanol industry. In addition, Brazil accounted for more than 90%of new investment in renewable energy in Latin America in 2008, UNEP reported.
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