Brazil offshore wind law 'starting point' but more needed to realise 'dream' of first tenders
Without legislation, Latin America's largest economy may have risked 'missing train' of global investments into wind at sea, sector association head Gannoum tells Recharge
“The industry was anxiously awaiting it.
“There is a big global run on offshore wind investments. Brazil is one of the countries with the best potential worldwide for offshore production, as for onshore, and Brazil couldn’t miss the train … If Brazil hadn’t approved this project … we had been in a very unfavourable situation to attract investments in the global economy.”
The legislation originally drafted in 2021, in December 2024 was approved by the Brazilian Senate and a year earlier by the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house.
Brazil’s government in the past two years under President Lula has been bringing its house in order, creating an adequate industrial policy that favours the domestic manufacturing of components and the use of home-grown energy resources with an emphasis on renewables, Gannoum said.
But the ABEEólica chief added that “obviously, this is a starting point” after which “we have a series of factors that need to be resolved.”
“We have homework to do now, which is the regulation and mainly the dreamed-of realisation of offshore wind lease tenders.”
Gannoum also welcomed the veto by Lula of amendments to the legislation that had been introduced by lawmakers and would have cemented support for gas- and coal-fired power plants.
“He vetoed issues that had nothing to do with the law. He vetoed coal and gas-fired thermo-electric plants ... it made no sense to have projects with an offtake guarantee for coal and gas-fired plants.
“Those would have taken market [share] away from renewables, which would have been against the global trend to reduce emissions.”
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