In January, BNDES announced it was increasing the local sourcing criteria from 60% of total investment.
Developers say access to finance from the bank is essential as it offers the only local currency-based long-term finance that will reduce the risks in local contracts and competitive auctions, in which prices can be as low as BRL 99/MWh ($47/MWh).
The new rules require three major components — out of blades, towers, hubs and nacelles — to be made in Brazil. Gamesa has been manufacturing hubs and nacelles in Bahia since 2011. It has also outsourced blade and tower manufacturing to local suppliers, including Tecsis (blades) and Torrebras (towers).
According to “uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç Intelligence, Gamesa has a 550MW pipeline of projects set to come online in Brazil between 2013 and 2015.
The debate over local content requirements dominated the Brazil “uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç 2012 event in late August, as global turbine manufacturers met local suppliers in efforts to increase their use of domestic components and regain access to cheap local finance.
In June, Spain's Acciona, Denmark's Vestas, India's Suzlon, Germany's Fuhrländer and US firm Clipper were delisted by BNDES from its Finame financing programme after failing to abide by the bank's local content regulations.
Speaking shortly after Alstom won a 1.2GW Brazil tender, the French company's senior vice president, Alfonso Faubel, spoke about the local sourcing requirements. He said: "They are the rules of the game. Alstom has been in Brazil for 55 years and we expanded our portfolio by bringing in wind.
"We're familiar with how those rules work, and we've been obeying them in transport and hydro. But it's a challenge too, because there's not a second-tier supplier base to work with."
.png)
.png)
