Offshore Wind: After Aneel’s Decision to Close Parks, Entrepreneurs in Ceará’s Energy Sector Express Dissatisfaction

As the Attitude of Aneel to Close Two Offshore Wind Farms in Ceará, Company Directors Resort to Legal Action

As previously published here on CPG, on April 8, Friday, the board of the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) declared the offshore wind energy production projects Asa Branca, located in the city of Acaraú in Ceará, belonging to Eólica Brasil, and Caucaia, which is on the coast of the homonymous municipality, from BI Energia Ltda., as extinct.

Unanimously, Aneel’s directors concluded that the two enterprises do not meet the requirements of the legislation.

Discontent, the directors of the offshore wind energy companies in Ceará – a state that has invested heavily in the sector – appealed against Aneel’s decision.

Statement from Executives

For the newspaper Diário do Nordeste, which requested explanations about the incident, the director of BI Energia, Lúcio Bonfim, said he is waiting for the publication of the vote from the director-reporter of Aneel, who suggested the extinction of the project and, also, for the final decision of Aneel’s board.

Bonfim stated that his lawyers defended the enterprise on the eve of Aneel’s meeting. From Aneel’s board report, he reiterates: “They are extinguishing our administrative process for requesting the DRO, which is the Dispatch of Registration of Grant Request.”

According to him, decree 10,946, signed last January by President Bolsonaro, regulates the implementation and operation of offshore wind generation parks without the request for the DRO. Bonfim concluded: “The offshore wind project in Caucaia continues. It has not been excluded.”

Meanwhile, the partner and director Marcelo Storrer, from Eólica Brasil, who wishes to install the largest offshore wind farm in the Northeast in Ceará – a region with high wind capacity – said that the company’s lawyers are analyzing Aneel’s announcement and will take appropriate actions.

2 Offshore Wind Energy Projects in Ceará Are Extinguished by ANEEL Due to Environmental Risks to the Region’s Flora and Fauna

Aneel is extinguishing projects that do not meet regulations and may harm Brazilian fauna and flora. Only in Ceará, two offshore wind energy projects have already been extinguished.

On Friday (8), two of the nine offshore wind energy exploration projects that were to be built on the coast of Ceará were declared extinct by the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel). The decision was formalized in a publication of individual resolutions for each licensing process. The agency assessed the environmental risks and the intervention proposals made by the responsible companies as being outside the standards, which could pose an environmental risk to the region’s flora and fauna. Additionally, they were also deemed to be outside the technical standards required in the regulatory guidelines approved in 2007.

In the state of Ceará, the previously announced and extinguished projects were the offshore wind farms Caucaia and Asa Branca. The Dispatch for Grant Request (DRO) for the Caucaia project had been requested from Aneel in August 2016. The plant, run by BI Energia LTDA, would use 48 haliade-x model wind turbines and was expected to have a maximum capacity of 576 megawatts (MW).

The Asa Branca project, run by Eólica Brasil, has a more recent grant request, filed in January 2022. The project aimed to implement an offshore wind farm on the coast of Ceará, using 72 Vestas V236 model wind turbines. Therefore, the plant, which was extinguished due to its potential to cause damage to the region’s fauna and flora, would have the capacity to generate 1,080 MW. To understand the complete topic, click here to read this article in full.