Wind energy: what will its future be like in Brazil?
An article published by Energy Central presents very important data on the future of wind energy in Brazil.
What caught my attention the most was the “position” of the planning for offshore plants, which includes 94 items with an aggregate capacity of 211 GW. For reference, this capacity is of the same order of magnitude as all the generation currently installed in Brazil.
Two more worrying aspects concern economic viability, from a competitiveness perspective:
1. Transmission lines
Offshore plants are typically much further away from the loads than other plants, which tend to considerably increase the investments needed to connect this new capacity to the national integrated system.
2. “Non-firm” energy
Wind generation depends, of course, on the winds. And so it is necessary to deal with the balance between supply and demand in a model that is more expensive for the national integrated system than “firm” plants.
Wouldn’t it be interesting and convenient to evaluate generation alternatives and then make decisions that focus on cost merit? The question is raised because the cost of Brazilian energy, in $/kWh, is (already and for years) at the bottom of the market when the reference is the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group.
