Barriers to onshore wind farm implementation in Brazil

Across the world, several developing countries with recent wind energy (WE) diffusion have been demonstrating an interest in expanding WE generation quickly and expressively. In Brazil, this fast and remarkable WE diffusion process started in the past decade, facing a variety of barriers. This research proposes to reliably identify and analyse current barriers to the implementation of onshore wind farms in the country, aiming at informing other developing countries with the intention to expand WE utilization about potential barriers, as well as assisting the Brazilian WE sector in its efforts to keep growing sustainably. To achieve this research goal, 41 key stakeholders from the Brazilian WE sector were interviewed. Based on a content analysis of the interviews, twenty-four barriers where identified, three of which with particular relevance: poor transmission infrastructure, unattractive financial loans and unstable macroeconomic environment. The data collected suggests a serious risk that Brazil's WE sector stops growing if the recovery of its national economy, the reestablishment of regular energy auctions, the access to competitive credit, and improvements to the transmission system infrastructure keep being held back. In the face of this scenario, this study concludes by providing policy recommendations concerning the sustainability of the Brazilian WE sector.