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Brazil

Brazil thinking big about wind, attracts major players

Brazil is on a roll and its wing energy industry too. The country’s government recently announced a new energy expansion plan, which includes boosting installed wind power generation capacity to 11.5 GW by 2020 from a mere 1.5 GW now. This has not gone unnoticed by international wind turbine manufacturers, such as Alstom, which has just opened its first Latin American plant in Brazil.
Brazil thinking big about wind, attracts major players

Brazil’s wind industry is attracting the attention of an increasing number of international players in the sector, especially since the country’s government launched a new energy expansion plan entailing the roll-out of an additional 10 GW of wind energy capacity over the next nine years. The Government’s plan is that growing Brazil’s wind industry will avoid the need to build more fuel-powered plants after 2015, as oil and biodiesel are more expensive to import and more polluting.

According to the Latin American Wind Association (LAWEA), the future tenders for this additional capacity will be more profitable because the Government is poised to introduce equipment-import and other tax breaks, as well as cheaper financing rates through Brazil's development bank, BNDES, to make it all happen.

According to Elbia Melo, CEO of the Brazilian Windpower Association, building a wind farm in Brazil has become 70 percent cheaper than it was seven years ago.

Alstom moves in

Alstom is one international player in the wind market not wanting to miss out in Brazil. On 30 November it opened its first wind turbine plant on the South American continent in Brazil. The plant, located in the industrial complex of Camaçari, state of Bahia, will have an output capacity of 300 MW per year.

This new plant, which has been built according to the LEED certification, will be in charge of the assembly of the ECO 86 turbines, adapted for the medium to high wind conditions and for the complex coastal geography of the region. The plant will also manufacture the ECO 100 turbines, which has already over 350 MW installed or under construction around the world and over 200,000 accumulated hours of operation since 2008.

“Today, Alstom reinforces its strategy of investing in renewable power and proves great interest in expanding markets, such as Brazil. This is just the beginning of a path we want to follow in the wind industry in Brazil and over Latin America”, said Patrick Kron, Chairman and CEO of Alstom, at the inauguration. The ceremony was attended by top Brazilian officials such as Jaques Wagner, Governor of the state of Bahia, and around 150 participants including customers, business partners and authorities.

Brazil is one of the fastest growing markets for wind power, according to Marcos Costa, Vice President Renewable Power and Thermal Power for Alstom Latin America. “One of the greatest potential is in the Northeastern region, and Bahia is one of the most promising states. The industrial complex of Camaçari is well-located in terms of logistics, especially for exportation and the offer of specialized labor found in the region,” Costa explains. An estimated one third of the Camaçari plant production will serve other markets in Latin America.

Before the start of its manufacturing operations in Brazil, Alstom already won two critical contracts for wind farms. In July 2010, Alstom signed a contract worth €100 million with the renewable power generation company Desenvix, a subsidiary of the Engevix group, for the construction of a 90 MW wind complex, also in the state of Bahia. The Brotas Complex will be composed of three wind farms to be equipped with 57 Alstom ECO 86 wind turbines of 1.67 MW each.

In 2011, the company also signed a contract with Brasventos S.A, worth approximately €200 million, for the construction and maintenance of three wind farms, which will be installed in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. The complex will have a total production capacity of 580,000 MWh a year, and will be supplied with Alstom’s SCADA system, allowing for local and remote access to turbine data, optimizing operation and maintenance.

[Image: Alstom wind turbine facility in Bahia (Brazil). Courtesy of Alstom.]

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