Goldwind is looking to start building wind turbines in Brazil for sale there and in other regional markets, a senior executive from the Chinese OEM giant was reported as telling an industry conference.
Goldwind is in advanced discussions with the northeast Brazilian states of Ceara, Pernambuco and Bahia over hosting the plant, which could be producing turbines by 2024, said Brazil general manager Roberto Veiga according to Reuters.
“We will start offering this turbine on the market already in mid-2023,” he was quoted telling the Brazil Windpower industry event, adding that the factory could produce models rated between 6MW and 7.8MW and could export regionally.
South America is a key market for Goldwind, which has turbines in place in markets such as Chile and Argentina, and launched a service operation in Brazil, the region’s largest wind market, in 2019 to get established there.
Production in Brazil gives developers using the turbines access to favourable government finance, with the likes of Vestas and Siemens Gamesa among foreign players to site production there.
As well as an onshore wind market that last year passed 20GW installed, Brazil is slowly but surely laying the regulatory ground for what could be a globally significant offshore sector with some of the world’s best wind resources.
Brazil’s environmental protection agency Ibama in August listed 169GW in proposed offshore wind projects seeking approval off the country’s almost 8,000km of coast, with Japan’s Shizen Energy the latest company to seek environmental permits, joining sector heavyweights such as the Engie-EDPR joint venture Ocean Winds, Iberdrola, Macquarie's Corio Generation, and oil & gas majors Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies.
Goldwind has been approached for comment over whether a factory could also serve the offshore market in future.
Goldwind has long seen Brazil as an attractive destination for production investment, with a senior executive telling Recharge in 2017 that the nation was “top of the list” for the company.
Goldwind was the Chinese market leader and global number-two to Vestas in 2021, according to BloombergNEF. The OEM has been buoyed by its huge domestic market, and like compatriot wind turbine groups is increasingly looking for opportunities in overseas markets.
The manufacturer in September bagged a 500MW deal in Uzbekistan that was hailed as a milestone for “China's foreignisation of wind power”.
