Fresh wind blows through Brazil's energy sector

Tue May 19, 2009 9:15pm EDT
By Stuart Grudgings
PARACURU, Brazil (Reuters) - Nearly 50 years spent fishing from tiny sailboats have taught Manuel de Oliveira the power of the wind, but he was mystified when white windmills began springing up along the coast near his town.
"I did think they were pretty strange," he said as he shook his net out on a beach in Brazil's northeastern state of Ceara. "But the wind is the wind, and it works for everyone. Thankfully for us, it's free."
The strong, consistent winds that for centuries have powered the colorful wooden "jangada" fishing boats off Brazil's northern coast are now making the area the center of the country's fastest-growing energy sector.
After a halting start, installed capacity is expected to roughly double this year from 341 megawatts at the end of 2008, a trend illustrated by the towering turbines that are increasingly common along the region's pristine beaches.
A major boost the industry has been waiting for comes on November 25, when the government holds its first wind power auction in which it is expected to buy up to 1,000 MW in new generating capacity from competing firms. Brazil's wind energy association estimates the auction will generate investments worth about 5 billion reais ($2.4 billion).
The 1,000 MW, which will be auctioned by the government annually, is enough to power around a million average homes.
That number is dwarfed by the world's big wind power players such as Germany, the United States, and Spain.
But industry executives speak optimistically about Brazil's potential of 140,000 MW, more than 10 times the capacity of the country's giant Itaipu hydropower project, thanks to its 7,300-km (4,500-mile) long, blustery Atlantic coastline.