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

June 9th, 2011 by Zachary Shahan

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









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