Hijacked by coal and gas, Brazil offshore wind debate omits key elements
Despite its crucial role in the country’s energy transition, a Brazilian bill regulating offshore wind energy is stalled by amendments related to fossil fuel thermoelectric plants, delaying investments and neglecting socio-environmental impacts.

One of the countries with the most decarbonised electricity matrix in the world, Brazil is moving towards the global agreement to triple renewable energy production by 2030, having activated 13 new photovoltaic solar plants and 25 wind farms in 2023 alone.
In Latin America, installed wind capacity in 2022 exceeded 44.7 GW, and Brazil plays a leading role. Although the continent is currently responsible for just over 5% of global wind energy production, the country ranks among the top ten in the world for installed capacity.
The 316 MW of wind energy added in 2023, however, is just the tip of the potential offshore wind iceberg. According to a World Bank Group study, it exceeds 1,200 GW in the country. The same study estimates that, by 2050, the wind energy industry could generate over 516,000 jobs and yield at least R$900 billion for the Brazilian economy.
Despite being a fundamental industry for the energy transition, wind energy production also brings socio-environmental impacts and conflicts. Issues such as land occupation contracts affecting traditional communities, threats to wildlife, and deforestation are some examples.
Offshore exploration has yet to occur in the country, which is currently discussing its regulatory framework. However, minimising the socio-environmental impacts of this industry is not the focus of the legislative debate.
Approved by the Senate and forwarded to the Chamber of Deputies in August 2022, Bill 576/2021, known as the Offshore Wind Bill, remains far from reaching a consensus for ratification.
As it was processed in the Chamber of Deputies, the original proposal to regulate the allocation of areas for offshore energy exploration received so-called “jabuti” amendments — a term used in Brazil to refer to proposals included in a bill that are unrelated to the main topic. More often than not, key legislative procedures are used to bypass unpopular or controversial decisions.
“Our parliament tends to take advantage of bills and attach unrelated issues, the so-called jabutis, to have them approved together,” Anton Schwyter, energy manager at the Arayara Institute, told Gas Outlook.
The changes approved in the Chamber include the mandatory contracting of 4.2 GW from fossil fuel-powered thermoelectric plants. Inflexible, these plants would be operational for at least 70% of the hours in a year, regardless of demand.
This proposal is a consequence of the “jabuti” amendments that were approved alongside Law No. 14.182 of 2021, which privatised Eletrobras, the largest energy company in Latin America. The main point of controversy in the law was the requirement to contract 8 GW produced by inflexible gas thermoelectric plants.
Health risk
The text also includes the mandatory contracting of 4.9 GW from small hydroelectric plants, in addition to extending from 2028 to 2050 contracts with coal thermoelectric plants, the most polluting and inefficient energy source available.
“Among fossil minerals, coal is the most damaging. In addition to the high quantity of greenhouse gases emitted and their environmental and climatic effects, our national coal contains a lot of soot, which is highly harmful to human health,” said Schwyter.
He explains that this energy source is also more expensive and less competitive, requiring subsidies for its generation. In a context of growing renewable sources, this makes coal an “even more anachronistic” option, he added.
In addition to being harmful in environmental terms, the “jabuti” amendments to the bill will cause delays in its approval and, consequently, loss of investments. “The legal framework for offshore wind farms is extremely important for the sector, as it provides security for investors to allocate resources effectively,” Edlayan Passos, an energy transition specialist at the E+ Institute, told Gas Outlook.
The “jabuti” amendments also “reduce the competitiveness and decarbonisation potential of the Brazilian industry, hindering Brazil’s potential to establish itself as a global supplier of low-carbon emission products,” said Passos.
A hijacked debate
Although the Offshore Wind Bill has been listed as a priority in the ecological transformation pact signed by the Three Branches of Government, since the inclusion of the “jabuti” amendments by the Chamber of Deputies, wind energy itself is the least discussed topic, despite its crucial role in the national energy transition.
In February, state-owned Petrobras, one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world, announced that it was awaiting a definition of the legislation to begin investments in offshore wind farms, one of the pillars of the company’s energy transition. In July, representatives from the electricity industry criticized the “jabuti” amendments in the bill.
Even the Ministry of Mines and Energy, which continues to advocate for oil exploration, supports vetoing the amendments related to fossil fuels.
“We have reached a rare situation where, during forums and public hearings, even stakeholders from the gas sector agreed that the proposal to contract inflexible thermoelectric plants does not make sense,” Ricardo Baitelo, project manager at the Institute of Energy and Environment, told Gas Outlook.
Baitelo explained that, in numerical terms, there is no energy deficit. “In fact, there are currently more sales contracts than actual consumption, to the point that some of the energy produced ends up being wasted. However, there are indeed specific moments when a gap occurs.”
It is during these moments, in emergency situations, that thermoelectric plants represent a solution. “But they should operate like car insurance,” Schwyter explained. “They should remain on standby, and like with insurance, we hope not to have to use them.”
He added that, with the advancement of generation from renewable sources, the country’s energy system is changing, along with the need for said “insurance.”
Moreover, as Baitelo explained, the energy produced by thermoelectric plants is much more expensive than that from hydroelectric, solar, or wind sources. If the “jabuti” amendments to the Offshore Wind Bill are approved, operational costs could exceed 650 billion reais (US$117 billion) by 2050.
“This represents an 11% increase in Brazilian electricity bills, directly impacting the household budgets of families and the country’s productive chains,” Carlos Faria, president of the National Association of Energy Consumers, told Gas Outlook. “We cannot have representatives whose decisions favour specific energy sector lobbies and go completely against the interests of consumers.”
Inclusive energy transition
The Brazilian Institute of Environment (Ibama) already has 96 licensing requests for offshore wind farm projects, totalling 234 GW.
“The licensing requests represent almost the same amount of energy that Brazil produces today. This equation doesn’t add up,” Cristina Amorim, coordinator of the Northeast Power Plan, told Gas Outlook. “Meanwhile, very little attention is paid to the environmental impacts of offshore wind farms themselves and to what they mean for communities and their territories.”
From construction to operation, the wind farms pose threats, especially to birds and marine ecosystems. Their transmission lines, multiple and more dispersed than those of large hydroelectric plants, also impact a greater number of communities.
Additionally, the bill proposes separate licensing for what happens offshore, under the jurisdiction of Ibama, and for the coastal areas, typically under state or municipal jurisdiction. “It’s important to understand that there is a continuum; it’s all one thing,” says Amorim.
In social terms, one of the main impacts occurs among traditional fishing communities in the northeast of Brazil — where most offshore wind power plants are built — where people use sailboats rather than motorised ones. Dependent on the wind currents, traditional fishermen find themselves at the mercy of the safety radius around the turbines.
“Often, when the radius of two or more turbines overlap, a barrier is created that fishermen cannot cross for their own safety,” Amorim explained. “But what happens if the areas where fishing is best are beyond that barrier?”
She noted that even in states where offshore wind farms do not yet exist, territorial conflicts and violence against communities have already escalated. In light of this, organisations like the Pastoral dos Pescadores, a religious association that supports artisanal fishermen for social justice, have already taken a stance against these projects, she added.
“What we need is for the energy transition, and this bill as part of it, to be a transition to a different model of energy generation that is fair, inclusive, and popular,” she says.
This story was produced as part of Climate Tracker’s Green Industries Programme.