Brazil breaks wind power expansion record in one year

The expansion of installed electricity capacity from wind energy in Brazil reached 3,051.29 megawatts (MW) in 2021, considering data from November. This is the largest increase in this source since 2014, when the National Electric Power Agency – ANEEL released 2,786 MW for commercial operation in the country. Currently, wind power plants constitute 20.1 gigawatts (GW) of installed power, which represents 11.11% of the Brazilian energy matrix.

Only in November, ANEEL launched projects with a total capacity of 561.13 MW for commercial operation with wind turbines.
Vestas, GE, Siemens Gamesa and Nordex are the largest wind turbine manufacturers in Brazil.
In 2021, the installed capacity to date is 6,436.11 MW, with 3,051.29 MW (47.41%) of wind energy, 2,038.91 MW (31.68%) of thermoelectric plants, 1,252.17 MW ( 19.46%) from photovoltaic solar plants and 89.22 MW (1.39%) from small hydroelectric plants.
The generation expansion goal in 2021, of 4,790.4 MW, was surpassed by ANEEL in September. During this year, plants were inaugurated or reopened in 20 states of the five regions of the country. The states with the greatest increase in generation capacity were, in descending order: Rio Grande do Norte (1,358.70 MW), Bahia (1,343.19 MW) and Rio de Janeiro (1,338.30 MW). There are 69 plants in trial operation, 17 of them since October.

Among the plants released for commercial operation in November, approximately 92% are not related to regulated commercialization contracts (ACR).

Installed capacity

According to ANEEL’s Generation Information System, SIGA, updated daily with data from plants in operation and projects granted under construction, 82.82% of electrical energy in operation is generated by renewable sources.