Brazil to Triple Renewable Energy by 2020 (Focus on Wind)

Germany, South Korea, Japan, and China aren’t the only countries looking to up step on the renewable energy pedal. Brazil, another major world economy, has also recently announced big renewable energy plans.

A new national 10-year plan from Brazil shows that the country will triple its use of renewable energy by 2020 and that a lot of that energy will be wind energy.

Going from 9 GW of wind, biomass and small hydropower in 2010, the country intends to hit 27 GW by 2020. It wants to have 16% of its electricity supply coming from renewables in 10 years.

On wind energy, the country hit the 1 GW milestone in May but plans to get to 12 GW by 2020. Last year’s 10-year plan only had the country getting 6 GW from wind by 2019, so you can see that the country is really stepping up its wind energy goals.

On small hydro, the plan is to go from 3.8 GW (2010) to 6.4 GW (2020). And, for biomass, the plan is to go from 4.5 GW to 9 GW.

Brazil Investing in Renewables Not Fossil Fuels

How is Brazil going to hit its targets? With strong investment in new renewable energy technologies, not continued investment in fossil fuels. Here’s how investment is scheduled to break down:

R$70 billion ($44.5 billion) for renewable energy sources
R$96 billion ($60.7 billion) for large-hydro plants
R$25 billion ($15.8 billion) for fossil projects

The plan was created by Brazil’s energy research center (note: page linked is in Portuguese, but can easily be translated in Google Chrome or Google Translate).

More Brazil stories on CleanTechnica:

Photos via Eduardo Amorim & The AlleyTree

Zachary Shahan (2291 Posts)

I'm the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular clean energy website in the world, and Planetsave, a leading green and science news site. I've been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and I've been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, bicycling, and wind energy for the past few years. You can also find my work on Scientific American, Reuters, Think Progress, GE's ecomagination site, several sites in the Important Media network, & many other places. To connect on your favorite social network, go to: zacharyshahan.com

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guest

i’m not sure if we’re reading the same EPE note.
the epe says that the share of renewables will stay at about 83% of brazil’s electric capacity during the next decade. that’s because while it certainly is increasing the percentage of alternative renewables (such as wind, solar, biomass, and small hydropower dams) the dependence on large hydropower dams will decrease (from 76% of electric production to 67%).
even in the case of overall energy needs, the pctage of renewables will go from 44.8% in 2010 to 46.3% in 2020, hardly a tripling.
and while it is good to see more financing for wind and solar, to say that brazil is opting for heavy investment in renewables over fossil fuels is inaccurate, i think. of the BRL1 trillion expected in investments over the next decade, half (510 billion) will go toward oil and gas exploration and production. less than one tenth of that, just 45 billion, will go toward building new alternative renewable electricity sources
- Anonymous
  
  you definitely bring up some good points on the fossil fuel front.
  
  from what i read, they were excluding large hydro from the “renewables” they
  are talking about tripling. not sure if that is a legitimate decision, but
  that seems to be where the discrepancy lies
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guest

Energy, much like business is a lifestyle. If you consume more than you contribute you are part of the problem. If, like most people you don’t contribute any energy production perhaps you should reconsider that situation.

The place to start is by getting informed about the facts of energy production. It is rather interesting to see a National Plan, such as the Brazilian 10 year program made available by Clean Technia, but the rubber meets the road in your backyard, on your rooftop or at you local parks, schools and businesses. This is the battleground where humanity will either succeed and set itself on the path to global prosperity, or fail and retrench into the violent nationalistic chaos that we witnesses twice in the Tewntieth Centrury.

Peak oil argument aside, the real evidence is plain to see where responsible people in governments around the world are preparing to transition out of fossil fuel dependency by adopting and publishing plans that their citizens can at the very least read, if not adopt or comply with.

We, in the U.S.A. should not be so arrogant as to think we are lesser involved than the Brazilian are in global energy policy. These are not market matters that should only be handle by corporate interests. If the lights go out in your neighborhood, it really doesn’t matter if you have a backup emergency generator to serve your personal interests. Loss of electrical power from the public grid means a hit to productivity of the entire community not just disruption to the wealthy individuals norm.

This is a perspective that the utility industry isn’t publiclly stressing in their efforts to generate more stock value as opposed to greater reliability in the face of climate change and rapidly escalating demand. We need better leadership from all three quadrants; business, government, and media to get a NEP on the politcal platform of every politician seeking elected office. America needs a NEP.
- Anonymous
  
  Thanks for the excellent commentary! Agreed on all fronts