Brazil Grants First Preliminary Licence for Offshore Wind Project

Brazil’s Institute for the Environment and Natural Resources (IBAMA) is set to award the country’s first preliminary investigation licence for an offshore wind project today, 24 June. The first project – of the total of 104 that IBAMA is currently processing – to receive the licence is the pilot offshore wind farm developed by the SENAI Institute for Innovation in Renewable Energies (ISI-ER).

The project will feature two wind turbines, installed between 15 and 20 kilometres off the coast of Porto-Ilha (Port-Island) of Areia Branca, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte.

The pilot project, to be realised by SENAI Rio Grande do Norte, through SENAI ISI-ER, will supply electricity to the Port-Island of Areia Branca through subsea cables that will run from the project site to a substation at the port terminal.

SENAI ISI-ER applied for the licence with IBAMA in 2023 and said in April last year that it expected the licence to be awarded soon.

The issuance of the preliminary license attests to the environmental feasibility of the project in its planning phase, subject to compliance with the requirements established by IBAMA for the next stages of licensing, SENAI ISI-ER says.

Information about the project shared earlier stated that the two-turbine pilot would have an installed capacity of 22 MW.

Project details now state the installed capacity will be 24.5 MW, with the pilot comprising one 8.5 MW and one 16 MW wind turbine.

While SENAI ISI-ER did not specifically state in its recent communication about the project, the developer might likely use Mingyang Smart Energy technology, as the two signed a cooperation agreement for activities focused on offshore wind in October last year.