Billion-Dollar Amendments Favor Thermal Power Plants and Threaten Lower Costs for Offshore Wind Energy in Brazil, Putting Billions of Reais at Stake and a Sustainable Future in Question

Written by Valdemar Medeiros

Published on 03/12/2024 at 07:31

Foto: Usina eólica offshore/Idogram

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Brazilian Offshore Wind Energy At Risk? Amendments Favor Thermoelectric Plants in Bill Project in Senate. Understand the Legal Framework Better and How It Can Impact Millions of Consumers.

The Senate resumed its analysis last Tuesday (26) of the Bill proposing the legal framework for offshore wind energy, where amendments favor thermoelectric plants and may harm electricity generation on maritime platforms. The bill for Brazilian offshore wind energy was included on the agenda of the Infrastructure Services Commission meeting and, if approved in its current version, will impose a billion-dollar cost on electricity consumers in the country.

Understand the Impacts and Why Amendments Favor Thermoelectric Plants

The matter, which was on the agenda of the Senate’s Infrastructure Services Commission, was withdrawn for reexamination due to the inclusion of numerous parliamentary amendments, considered “jabuticabas” by experts. These amendments favor thermoelectric plants and, unrelated to the central theme of the proposal, foresee the allocation of billions of reais for the contracting of gas thermoelectric plants and the extension of contracts for coal plants.

The movement in Congress put members of the Brazilian offshore wind energy sector on alert. They considered the debate on the new legislation important for the country, however, now classify it as a bomb, turning against consumers of various consumption levels.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Amendments Favor Thermoelectric Plants and Sector Experts Speak Out

In the Senate, the bill for the Brazilian offshore wind energy sector is reported by Senator Weverton de Sousa (PDT-MA). Members of the sector assess that there is a chance of the current text being approved in the commission and proceeding to a vote in the plenary soon.

The amendments favor thermoelectric plants, and criticism comes from various sector experts linked to entities, consulting firms, and independent institutes. For them, the National Congress overshadows the potential of Brazilian offshore wind energy in this new market and the positive aspects of the new legislation, which tend to attract new investors to the country.

If the current text is approved, the legal framework will create expenses for electricity consumers through a set of benefits directed at specific business groups operating within the electricity sector. The amendments favor thermoelectric plants and guarantee an additional period of 36 months for owners of renewable energy projects to access expired subsidies.

Can the Text Still Be Altered?

The Senator Weverton Rocha (PDT-MA), the rapporteur for the legal framework, signaled to interlocutors that he plans to adjust the project’s wording to facilitate a presidential veto of the jabutis inserted in the House.

The INFRA Agency states that the senator does not currently see a scenario in the House where he can gain support to clean the text and remove all unrelated topics to the main objective of the matter. The decision to maintain or not the jabutis would remain in the hands of the federal government, through a presidential veto.

The amendments favor thermoelectric plants, and the most controversial ones are present in articles 21 to 24. The strategy being considered by the parliamentarian would be to separate some measures that are in the same paragraph, so that the Executive Branch has options to cut only parts of the text. However, the parliamentarians would already be building an agreement to overturn any vetoes, according to sources.

Billion-Dollar Amendments Favor Thermal Power Plants and Threaten Lower Costs for Offshore Wind Energy in Brazil, Putting Billions of Reais at Stake and a Sustainable Future in Question

Brazilian Offshore Wind Energy At Risk? Amendments Favor Thermoelectric Plants in Bill Project in Senate. Understand the Legal Framework Better and How It Can Impact Millions of Consumers.

Understand the Impacts and Why Amendments Favor Thermoelectric Plants

Amendments Favor Thermoelectric Plants and Sector Experts Speak Out

Can the Text Still Be Altered?

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Billion-Dollar Amendments Favor Thermal Power Plants and Threaten Lower Costs for Offshore Wind Energy in Brazil, Putting Billions of Reais at Stake and a Sustainable Future in Question

Brazilian Offshore Wind Energy At Risk? Amendments Favor Thermoelectric Plants in Bill Project in Senate. Understand the Legal Framework Better and How It Can Impact Millions of Consumers.

Understand the Impacts and Why Amendments Favor Thermoelectric Plants

Amendments Favor Thermoelectric Plants and Sector Experts Speak Out

Can the Text Still Be Altered?

The Soviet Union spent 22 years drilling into the Earth’s crust and reached a depth of 12,262 meters — they found water where it was thought impossible, hydrogen bubbling from the rock, granite that is 2.7 billion years old, and temperatures of 180 degrees that melted the drill bits.

Egypt wants to draw 10 million cubic meters of water from the Nile per day into the desert, irrigate a new agricultural frontier, and build a city where there is currently only sand.

BRICS is preparing a payment system inspired by the Brazilian PIX that will allow direct transactions between countries using national digital currencies without relying on the dollar or Western banks as intermediaries.

Ethiopia has banned gasoline and diesel cars, placed over a hundred silent electric buses on the streets of Addis Ababa, and now aims for half a million electric vehicles by 2030, all powered by Africa’s largest dam and a courage that few countries have shown.

A view from space, an image made by NASA shows the impressive Richat Structure, a geological formation located in the Sahara Desert, also known as the “Eye of the Sahara.”

A brand that has been manufacturing motorcycles since 1901 launches its first electric model, and the price shocked the world: $3,000, weighing only 124 kg and accelerating from 0 to 60 km/h in 3.7 seconds…

Giant turbines on the seabed of Scotland have been generating clean energy for nearly a decade without interruption, and now the big promise is that tidal power could solve the biggest problem of solar and wind energy: the unpredictability that no one has been able to overcome until today.

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