Barriers to onshore wind farm implementation in Brazil

How Do Stakeholders Perceive Barriers to Large-Scale Wind Power Diffusion? A Q-Method Case Study from Ceará State, Brazil

“…"Failing because of the grid" shows concern for the costs of future transmission lines and short-circuit capacity. This view displays concern about the ability of the grid operator to operate and dispatch in a hydro-thermo-wind setting and corroborates recent work indicating high concern with transmission and grid system as barriers [15]. "Environmental challenges" is more concerned with organizational issues, such as transformation of the hydro-thermal mental model of the technical staff of the electric sector and easing of environmental impact reporting.…”

“…We also corroborate the importance in Brazil of the large spinning reserve and capacity for wind forecasting as potential obstacles, as other groups have reported [15,35]. The tensions among the social perspectives we describe here also have broad parallel to the challenges reported recently regarding possible negative outcomes in a federal system that lacks coordinated policy and planning among national and state governments [36].…”

“…The four observed social perspectives and supporting arguments present a different understanding of how stakeholders understand barriers and challenges. "Failing because of the grid," "Environmental challenges," and "Planning for wind" include barriers reported in Brazil [15] and globally for renewable power penetration, stressing particular concerns rooted in respondents' setting in Brazilian institutions. But "Participating in wind" presents novel views of the need to develop wind power on solid technical, environmental, and economic grounds, rather than prioritizing a particular technical issue.…”

“…Interviews were purposive, following Q-method protocols and our knowledge of Brazil's electricity sector, which is dominated by state-run firms and private firms that bid on electricity supply auctions. Unlike a recent study of stakeholder views [15], we included respondents with knowledge of the Northeast Electrical Subsystem, one of five subsystems of Brazil's National Interconnected Electric System (SIN); the role of the National Electric System Operator (ONS) over coordination and control of its power plants and transmission lines; and the planning and regulatory functions of the federal Energy Research Company (EPE, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL).…”

“…Previous work identified barriers to wind power expansion by the number of mentions during qualitative interviews [15], but here we apply different analytical techniques and expand the type of stakeholder interviewed by including state and federal regulators and electrical system operators. We determine statistically significant views held among stakeholders (planners, regulators, grid managers, power distributors, wind turbine manufacturers, industrialists, and entrepreneurs) in the power sector regarding techno-organizational challenges for large scale wind power diffusion in the state of Ceará.…”