Unconnected Brazil wind farms could reach 1.3GW

BRAZIL: The number of Brazilian wind projects without a grid connection could reach 1.3GW by year end due to the lack of transmission capacity, according to the country's wind industry trade body.

Power lines in Brazil... the country faces grid connection issues for wind

By end-2013, Brazil could end up with a total of 5.9GW of installed wind power capacity. However, according to Brazilian wind power association Abeeolica, lack of a grid connection will mean that more than a sixth of this will not come online.

Abeeolica said the government has agreed to include in its planning process regions and locations with high wind power potential.

Also, developers can build short transmission connections themselves or they can seek permission to install shared substations and connections known as ICGs.

Abeeolica is still in talks with government planners to develop transmission lines more closely linked to the time it takes to build a wind power project in Brazil, around 18 months.

Brazil is expanding its transmission grid — currently at around 104,000 kilometres — at a rate of some 2,000 kilometres a year through auctions of lines that are determined by the a central government energy planning agency, EPE.

At the end of the March, Abeeolica said the country's wind installed capacity reached 2.7GW.