Cleantech Investor

Press Release:

Brazil Wind Energy Conference 2012

2 April 2012, São Paulo:

Global and national Brazilian leaders in energy meet with Brazil’s wind industry leaders and government officials from key states in the North East at Brazil Wind Energy Conference (BWEC) 2012 on 2 and 3 April. The theme for BWEC 2012, which is organised by Cleantech Investor, in partnership with Brazilian magazine CartaCapital, is ‘Building Brasil’s Wind Business’. Conference speakers debate the twin challenges facing Brazil to finance the roll out of a wind energy generation business and to build a domestic turbine and supply chain manufacturing hub.

Keynote speakers at BWEC 2012 include Minister of National Integration, Fernando Bezerra Coelho, Mauricio Tolmasquim, President, Empresa de PesquisaEnergética (EPE), Cid Gomes, Governor of the State of Ceará, and Preben Maegaard,President of the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA).

Speakers at the opening session of BWEC 2012 address the optimal mix of wind in the Brazilian electricity grid – and the role of wind in both the regulated and free energy markets. Mauricio Tolmasquim of EPE is joined on the opening panel by Elbia Melo, Executive President, Abeeólica (the Brazilian Wind Energy Association); Colin Johnson, Leader of Global Energy Practice, Grant Thornton and Chairman, TheCityUK Brazil Committee; and Paulo Pedrosa, Executive President, ABRACE (the Brazilian Association of Intensive Energy Users).

The key challenge of financing wind project development is the topic of Session 2, which includes speakers from BNDES, RenovaEnergia and Megajoule. This session addresses the enormous challenge of financing wind projects contracted already – and in those to come in the future –through Brazil’s wind energy auction system.
The afternoon of Day 1 and four special sessions on Day 2 of BWEC 2012 focus on the enormous potential for wind energy in the ‘wind states’ of the North East of Brazil. There is an exciting opportunity for wind to play a role in economic development and wind equipment manufacturing clusters are emerging in three key states, creating jobs and helping to drive economic development. Government representatives from these states, Bahia, Ceará and Pernambuco, are joined on Day 2 by representatives of wind equipment companies with manufacturing bases in the North East of Brazil, including WobbenWindpower (Enercon), Vestas, Gamesa, GE, IMPSA and Torrebras.

An analysis by Cleantech Investor ranks Brazil as the number 10 wind market in the world, based on a range of criteria derived from Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) statistics. According to Cleantech Investor founder and CEO, Anne McIvor:

“Brazilian wind energy – and wind energy across Latin America generally – is experiencing strong growth. With a 62.8% increase in capacity in 2011, the Brazilian wind energy market was one of the fastest growing in the world. Taking into account other factors including total market size and annual capacity added, Brazil ranks number ten in the world on our analysis. Brazil is still a long way behind markets such as China, the US, India and some of the European markets. However, the Brazil looks set to catch up fast.”

The full analysis of world wind energy markets by Cleantech Investor is available here.

A pdf of the associated feature from Cleantech magazine is available to download here.

The date for BWEC 2013 will be announced shortly. The theme for BWEC 2013 will be “Powering Latin America’s Wind Industry”. Next year’s event will focus on Brazil’s role within the Latin American region in wind energy and general energy markets – and on the export opportunity for Brazilian based wind equipment manufacturers.

For further information contact:

BWEC 2012

Brazil Wind Energy Conference (BWEC 2012) takes place in São Paulo on 2 and 3 April 2012. BWEC 2012 is organised jointly by Cleantech Investor Ltd. and Brazilian magazine RevistaCartaCapita.

www.brazilwindenergyconference.com

Cleantech Investor

Cleantech Investor, headquartered in London, UK, publishes Cleantech magazine and business intelligence reports on clean technologies and organises events.

www.cleantechinvestor.com

CartaCapital

CartaCapital, founded by journalist Mino Carta 18 years ago, provides a critical view and exclusive stories on politics, economics and culture in Brazil and around the world.

www.cartacapital.com.br