Norwegian company (Equinor) wants to install an offshore wind farm on the coast of Espírito Santo

Norwegian oil company Equinor (formerly Statoil) wants to expand its activities in Espírito Santo. The company, which already owns oil exploration blocks in the state, intends to use the Espírito Santo sea also to generate clean energy, from winds, in the region of Itapemirim, on the south coast.

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Equinor with yet another offshore wind energy project contemplating Brazil

Equinor is licensing an offshore wind farm (at sea) in the state and another in the north of Rio de Janeiro, with a capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW) each, totaling 4 GW, according to information published by the newspaper “O Estado de S. Paulo” this Saturday (10). This is the largest wind energy project ever presented to environmental agencies in the country and also the company's first initiative of this energy source in Brazil, and it has had similar operations in Europe since 2017.

To get an idea of ​​the size of Equinor's undertaking, the energy generated by the turbines (wind turbines) in the two parks would be enough to supply all the homes in Espírito Santo and still have some left over. In the whole of last year, the energy generated from winds had around 6 GW installed in the country.

Brazil, however, still does not have any offshore wind projects. According to Estadão, the projects delivered to the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) were named Aracatu I, which will be on the coast of Rio de Janeiro, with the energy carried by cables to Campos do Goytacazes; and Aracatu II, which will take energy to Itapemirim.

Completion of the new offshore wind farm is scheduled to take place by the year 2024  

The company's forecast in the study is to complete the projects by 2024. According to the form submitted by the company to the environmental authorities, the offshore wind complex will consist of 320 generators (160 in each park) about 20 kilometers from the coast, in waters between 15 and 35 meters deep.

Equinor also states in the document that it will be able to expand the power of each park to 2,33 GW and that the characteristics of the region allow for wind farms of up to 14 MW.  

Still without an estimate of a value, Equinor should apply many millions of its budget in Brazil in the coming years to the mega project in Espirito Santo. Due to the size of the enterprise, the recently sworn-in interim president of the company in Brazil, Letícia Andrade, told the newspaper that the environmental licensing could take from one to three years.