Real Estate & Energy – Wind Farms – Eolic Power Plants in Brazil – An opportunity to explore
At the end of her administration, former President Rousseff said in one of her addresses to the United Nations that it would be necessary to develop a technology to “stock wind”. Despite any political view or judgment regarding her competence as a Chief of State and besides her unintelligent manner of speech, unwillingly she brought into light for debate a very serious issue for the country. The Brazilian energy policy is yet to be solved.
In spite of the unlimited energy sources available, from 2002 to as recent as to 2015, the country suffered many black outs, showing that the energy generation and distribution was insufficient to meet the increasing demand for energy. There hasn’t been enough public investment to solve the matter and to make the country really capable of growing in the years to come.
Due to the abundance of enormous water sources spread around the Brazilian territory, the hydroelectric power plants are the primary option in the country’s energy matrix. However, considering what has happened in the recent past, alternative options of energy generation are gaining genuine importance and relevance.
One of the answers is the Eolic energy plants, since Brazil has twice the amount of wind compared with any other countries in world. Additionally, studies have shown a singular 5% of wind volatility, making it more predictable to calculate the available production capacity.
On the other hand, once the speed of wind in the Brazilian territory is usually higher in periods of drought, the eolic power plants help to preserve the amount of water in the dams during the low rain seasons, working in assistance and as a backup option to the hydroelectric power plants.
The 2010 wind potentiality atlas made by the brazilian public power energy company Eletrobras shows that 143,5 mil MW are available for production, which is higher then what is already being generated nowadays by all the energy solutions planted in the country (140 mil MW). It also indicates the northeast, southeast and south regions as the most appropriate for this kind of venture.
These greenfield investments have been under attention by many private companies and investment funds, once the ROI is considerably short and because the number of eolic power plants is expected to double in the next 5 years, becoming the second power generation source for the country until 2020 (according to the Brazilian Eolic Power Association – Abeeólica).