Regulation for offshore wind power development in Brazil

Offshore wind power is one of the fastest growing renewable energies and the Brazilian coastline with nearly 9650 km has a great wind potential. Even though offshore oil and gas regulation is well established, this is still unknown for offshore wind power. This article aims to propose a regulatory framework for development of offshore wind power in Brazil. A literature review and case studies were conducted on offshore wind regulation in Denmark, United Kingdom and Germany and on Brazilian offshore oil and gas. The framework involves three macro phases: Pre-development, Development and Operation and Post-Operation. As Brazil is a new market, the use of two concession regimes is proposed: open door and tender. The framework proposes a feed-in tariff contracted in the tender with readjustments by the General Index of Market Prices. The required licenses, authorized by ANEEL, IBAMA and COMAER are: area concession, simplified license for studies, marine and air collision, cable laying, construction and operation and pre-decommissioning. The research concludes that the legal framework should consider the entire life cycle of wind farm in order to avoid future regulatory problems such as those that occurred with the offshore oil and gas, which did not consider the decommissioning stage.