Brazilian Renewable Energy Institute Setting Up Country’s First Offshore Wind Training and Education Programmes

Brazil’s Centre for Gas Technologies and Renewable Energies (CTGAS-ER), part of the country’s SENAI Institute for Innovation in Renewable Energy, and the UK-based Ocean Energy Pathway have launched the first joint training programme focused on offshore wind energy in Brazil. Later this month, SENAI will also launch a postgraduate course in offshore wind.

The Basic Training in Offshore Wind course will be carried out in a pilot for the state of Rio Grande do Norte, with 60 participants from the Faculty of Renewable Energies and Industrial Technologies (FAETI), part of SENAI Rio Grande do Norte (SENAI-RN), CTGAS-ER, the SENAI Institute for Innovation in Renewable Energies (ISI-ER) and the Federal Rural University of the Semi-Arid (UFERSA).

Classes in Basic Training in Offshore Wind will continue until 26 August.

According to Amora Vieira, director of CTGAS-ER – SENAI’s main training center for wind energy in Brazil and National Center of Excellence for professional training in green hydrogen, the offshore wind training offers a comprehensive view of the activity, ranging from the fundamentals of the technology through the stages of wind farm development, environmental licensing, engagement with stakeholders, supply chain, engineering and construction, O&M, to energy trading and project decommissioning.

The director of SENAI-RN, ISI-ER and FAETI, Rodrigo Mello, said that joint initiatives with national and international institutions to train the professionals that the offshore wind industry needs are also under discussion or already in progress.

“This training with Ocean Energy Pathway is the first concrete activity, but much is still to come in professional education and higher education, which includes the launch, later this month, of the first postgraduate course in Brazil aimed at training specialists for this new industry”, Mello said.

Scheduled to start on 23 January 2026, the postgraduate course in offshore wind energy will be offered at FAETI’s headquarters in Natal and will last 14 months.

“The expectation is to repeat the success we achieved onshore – for the onshore wind power generation activity – when we created, 15 years ago, the specialisation that has been the basis for the training of technical professionals for this supply chain”, said Rodrigo Mello.

There are currently 104 projects undergoing the licensing process at the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), with proposals submitted for sites in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Ceará, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, Piauí, Espírito Santo, Maranhão and Santa Catarina.

A pilot project developed by SENAI-RN in Rio Grande do Norte was the first of these to receive a preliminary license.

The 24.5 MW project will serve as a test site for conducting studies and developing technologies that will support investments in the sector in Brazil.

As reported recently, SENAI-RN expects to receive an installation permit for the pilot project within 12 to 18 months and to have it operational within 36 months.