The federal agency denied the preliminary license for the construction of the Offshore Caucaia Wind Farm after observing irregularities in the project

Ibama rejected the request for a preliminary license for the installation of the offshore wind farm Caucaia, by BI Energia, in Ceará. The 598 MW project is a partnership between the Italian company Imprese e Sviluppo and businessman Lucio Bonfim.

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The EIA/Rima, which is the environmental impact study, was not approved by Ibama in an opinion released on August 06th. According to the Ibama document, the project shown “has a high degree of immaturity, as the interventions and impacts related to the creation of port areas essential to the project and/or forecast of eventual needs for expansion of existing reference ports, dredging and creation of new access roads are not defined”.

Another aspect of the project’s semi-offshore wind component, with the installation of wind turbines at the end of the breakwaters – a wall that is built to protect against the violence of the waters, as a breakwater – this causes an enormous direct impact and associated risks, “which are in total dissonance with the tourist vocation of the area”.

Ibama suggests that the project companies seek alternatives to achieve their willingness to control erosion on the beaches, "since the link between the implementation of breakwaters and the generation of energy is not technically justified in terms of the production of impacts that would be caused".

The project was expected to have 48 offshore turbines and 11 semi-offshore turbines. As soon as the description of the project was not approved, the request to work on the site was filed, as it was the second time that the EIA-Rima did not approve, and Ibama will charge the cost to analyze the project. Lúcio Bomfim, who is the partner-owner of BI Energia, said in his LinkedIn account that “despite Ibama's position, the company does not lose motivation to implement the project”.