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Wind Power News: Brazil
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational mission to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law. The original articles, links to which are provided, may have additional links and photos and other media that were not included here.
Brazil’s offshore wind farms could sacrifice small-scale fishing in Ceará
Click here for Portuguese original. A symbol of Brazil’s Ceará state and present on its official coat of arms since 1897, sail rafts known as jangadas are 80% of the fishing vessels in the state, but they could lose ground to wind turbines installed at sea. The matter is relevant because small-scale fishers who use unmotorized sail rafts such as Ceará’s jangadas depend on the strength of the winds to move around in the sea. That could be severely impacted . . . Complete story »
Brasil: Campesinos e indígenas se levantan contra proyectos eólicos en sus territorios
[Campesinos and indígenas rise up against wind projects in their territories – The wind turbines were, in part, installed very close to homes, forcing farmers to live with constant noise, exceeding the legal limit, 24 hours a day. “The constant noise brought physical illness. People started getting sick. Entire communities are depressed.” This is in addition to a white dust released by the blades that, according to farmers, causes respiratory and skin problems.] En la región Agreste del estado de Pernambuco, . . . Complete story »
Brazil communities accuse companies of ‘green grabbing’ for wind energy
Jeane Da Gama Costa, 42, grew up in Umburanas, a small municipality of Bahia, in northeastern Brazil. Her family raised cattle for meat and grew crops like beans, corn and watermelon. It was a quiet and modest life. “It was isolated, very isolated,” she says. Decades later, Jeane’s house is surrounded by some 80 wind turbines, including one within her own property, she says. A labyrinth of roads connects the towers while transmission lines snake from one corner of a . . . Complete story »
Wind power expansion meets grassroots resistance in Brazil’s northeast
Cousins Nilson José dos Santos and Geremias da Cruz dos Anjos grew up together in neighboring rural communities in Brazil’s impoverished Northeast. The ruggedness of the land here and recurring drought make it unsuitable for the commercial farming that has transformed so much of the country. Yet energy companies have found something here to harvest: the wind. The changes to the land have been dramatic. Enel Green Power, an Italian energy company, has put up one of Latin America’s largest . . . Complete story »
Brazil’s big cats under threat from wind farms
Weighing more than 100 pounds, big cats have long reigned over this hot and semi-arid region of Brazil, developing tougher paws for the scorched earth and reaching speeds of 50 miles an hour to bring down wild boar and deer. But nothing could have prepared them for the 150-foot blades now slicing up the deep blue sky above them. Jaguars and pumas are facing extinction in the Caatinga, Brazil’s northeastern shrublands, as Europe and China pour investment into wind farms, . . . Complete story »
In Brazil, rural communities are caught in the eye of the wind farm storm
[Leia em portugues: A luta das pescadoras cercadas por parques eólicos e especuladores no Rio Grande do Norte] Cerro Corá, Brazil – Antônio Acelino de Moura, 65, says he imagined the future had finally arrived at his community in the northeast of Brazil when, in 2012, he heard the news that a wind farm would be built here. Moura, a farmer with tanned and weathered skin bearing witness to years of work in the fields, watched eagerly from his porch, surrounded . . . Complete story »
For Caatinga’s last jaguars and pumas, wind farms are the newest threat
[Últimas onças da Caatinga enfrentam nova ameaça: complexos eólicos] Between March 2017 and January 2018, researchers tracked the movements of a female puma as it prowled around the Boqueirão da Onça protected area complex in the north of Brazil’s Bahia state. They’d named her Vitória, the first puma (Puma concolor) in the region to be captured and fitted with a radio collar, which researchers from the Amigos da Onça program, a wildcat project affiliated with conservation nonprofit Pró-Carnívoros, used to . . . Complete story »
Engie probes problems at Latin American wind facilities using Siemens Gamesa turbines
Engie and Siemens Gamesa are investigating issues at two of the former’s wind farms in Latin America involving turbines under scrutiny over technical problems at the manufacturing giant. Catherine MacGregor, during a conference call to discuss latest results, updated analysts on “technical problems that have been experienced by Siemens Gamesa and its 4.X and 5.X onshore turbine platform”. Global developer Engie uses the turbines in question at two wind farms in Latin America, said the CEO. “We have encountered technical . . . Complete story »
Engie e Siemens Gamesa apuram causa de avaria em equipamento de parque eólico no Nordeste
[Engie Brasil Energia and Siemens Gamesa are investigating the causes of a failure in one of the blades of a newly commissioned 6.2-MW wind turbine at the Santo Agostinho wind farm in Rio Grande do Norte.] A Engie Brasil Energia e a Siemens Gamesa afirmaram nesta quinta-feira que estão investigando as causas de uma avaria em uma das pás de um aerogerador de 6,2 MW de potência recém-comissionado no parque eólico Santo Agostinho, no Rio Grande do Norte. “As causas do . . . Complete story »
Engie (EGIE3) paralisa parque eólico após problema em equipamento; Siemens Gamesa investiga
[Engie suspended operations at the Santo Agostinho wind farm, under construction in Rio Grande do Norte with some machines already in operation, after malfunctions led to the blade falling off a wind turbine supplied by Siemens Gamesa.] A Engie suspendeu hoje as operações do parque eólico Santo Agostinho, em construção no Rio Grande do Norte e já com algumas máquinas em funcionamento, depois de avarias que levaram à queda da pá de um aerogerador fornecido pela Siemens Gamesa, segundo informações . . . Complete story »
