By December, 2006, Rio Grande do Sul, in the Brazilian South, will possess the largest eolian energy park in Brazil and the second largest in the world, in the municipality of Osório, on the northern coast of the state.
According to governor Germano Rigotto, the project represents a US$ 230 million investment by the Spanish company, Enerfin.
Enerfin will also install a factory in Osório to manufacture the 98-meter tall concrete towers that will support the wind-powered generators. This unit will cost an additional R$ 40 million in investments.
The president of Enerfin, Guillermo Planas, said that the 75 towers to be installed in the locale will produce a total of 150 megawatts. He announced that the project will get underway in May, 2005.
“It will be the world’s most modern eolian plant. This technology does not exist even in Spain. Only in Germany is there something similar,” he said.
Back in March, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva guaranteed that the development of good projects in the country will not suffer from lack of funds.
During a ceremony in the Planalto Palace to launch the Incentive Program for Alternative Sources of Electric Energy (Proinfa), Lula said that the government is willing to negotiate with entrepreneurs to materialize the implantation of projects that will promote the country’s development. Lula guaranteed that the Brazilian economy is ready to develop.
After signing the decree that created the Proinfa, Lula said that the program “is the most vivid demonstration that that government will take whatever steps are necessary for Brazil to have sustainable development.”
The Proinfa will be developed through a partnership between the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Ministry of Environment.
The program intends to diversify the Brazilian energy matrix by encouraging the production of wind energy, biomass energy, and energy produced by small hydroelectric plants.
It is estimated that, by 2006, 150 thousand direct and indirect jobs will be created, and US$ 2.95 billion (R$ 8.6 billion) will be invested.
The creation of an efficient energy matrix is, according to the President, basic to Brazilian growth.
Agência Brasil