Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Wind Energy Lags Behind Potential

By - - and IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 15 2010 (IPS) - Brazil's wind energy generating capacity jumped 77.7 percent last year, reaching 606 megawatts, over 341 megawatts in 2008, according to the Global Wind Energy Council Brazil's wind energy generating capacity jumped 77.7 percent last year, reaching 606 megawatts, over 341 megawatts in 2008, according to the Global Wind Energy Council.

“It is much less than what Brazil could and should have,” and is lagging behind when compared to the overall national energy matrix, where hydroelectricity predominates, said Rubens Born, director of the non-governmental organization Vitae Civilis.

“Without a doubt, wind has an ecological footprint that is smaller than the big hydroelectric and thermoelectric sources,” and because Brazil has an interconnected energy transmission network, electricity generated in the Northeast, the region with most wind, could be distributed to other parts of the country, he told Tierramérica.

But this source represents just 0.62 percent of Brazil's total energy generation, a portion that could quadruple by 2012, based on the contracts already signed.