Wind Power on the Brazilian Northeast Coast, from the Whiff of Hope to Turbulent Convergence: The Case of the Galinhos Wind Farms

Abstract

The convergent narrative which proposes an energy transition, aiming to replace fossil fuels with renewable energies, has in wind power technology a viable option that can consolidate this view. Brazil produced 14.8 GW of wind powered energy in 2019, 85.7% of this total in the Northeastern region. Social and environmental fragilities of local communities, overlooked an exclusionary planning, have led to opposition movements against wind farm implementation. This study aims to assess how the arrival of wind power dialogues with the demands of the communities living in the projects’ vicinities, as well as repercussions on institutional, socio-economic and environmental developments. A case study was conducted with regard to the Galinhos’ community reaction to the arrival of wind power. First, public domain narratives were evaluated, in order to ascertain the different perceptions from the social actors involved in the process. Next, the community’s vision was assessed regarding expectations and fears, created by the existence of the wind farm, before and after its implementation. The perception was that the wind farm did not change the population’s socioeconomic conditions and environmental issues require appraisals by the accountable bodies. In this scenario, the materiality of the narrative that justifies wind farm expansion in the Brazilian northeast was assessed.

Bigger Is Not Always Better: Review of Small Wind in Brazil

“…In Brazil, the rapid and expressive progress of wind energy, recorded since the beginning of this century, is credited to the existence of extraordinary winds, of high technical quality and regularity in its direction and speed, distributed over a large part of the national territory, especially on the coast of the northeast region. These favorable conditions have led operating wind farms to record load factors in numbers that exceed the world average, 42.7% in 2019, reaching its maximum value of 59.1% in August, against a global average of 34% in that same year [12].…”

Perception of Environmental Impacts of Wind Farms in Agricultural Areas of Northeast Brazil

“…Causes of opposition to wind farms in coastal territories in RN, were reported by Dantas et al [7] and Gorayeb et al [8], point out that wind farms may represent an imposition of people's attachment to landscapes. Community residents may feel marginalized because they do not participate in planning decisions or because they receive few benefits, and people may complain about health effects.…”

Licenciamento Ambiental E Oposição Social À Energia Eólica: Estudo De Caso Com Foco No Social Gap Em Comunidade Litorânea Do Ceará, Brasil

“…No contexto brasileiro, as análises geográficas sobre questões energéticas renováveis são preliminares (BRANNSTROM; TRALDI, 2019) e ainda não conseguiram acompanhar o rápido crescimento na capacidade da energia eólica e solar, ambas já instaladas no país (JUÁREZ et al, 2014;AQUILA et al, 2017). No entanto, destacam-se estudos sobre os conflitos sociais gerados entre comunidade e empreendimento eólico (CHAVES et al 2018;DANTAS et al, 2019;FRATE et al, 2019), assim como as abordagens econômico-políticas dos conflitos (MEIRELES, 2011;BRANNSTROM et al, 2017;GORAYEB et al, 2018) e a justificativa das localizações geográficas dos parques eólicos (BRANNSTROM et al, 2018).…”