Corio, EBR Partner to Assess Offshore Wind Hub Potential in Southern Brazil

August 19, 2024, by Adnan Memija

Corio Generation and Brazilian shipyard and marine construction company Estaleiros do Brasil (EBR) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to evaluate the suitability of EBR’s shipyard and construction facilities as a potential offshore wind hub for southern Brazil.

Under the agreement, the two companies will examine how EBR’s existing infrastructure could support the deployment of two wind farms planned for the south of the country, namely the 1,200+ MW Cassino Offshore Wind and 1,200+ MW Rio Grande Offshore Wind projects, with the potential to enter commercial negotiations to reserve part of an area used to facilitate the projects.

The EBR shipyard, located close to Rio Grande port in Brazil’s southern province of Rio Grande do Sul, covers an area of approximately 1.7 million square kilometres, with extensive facilities for building floating platforms for the oil and gas industry.

According to Corio, this expertise could be adapted and utilised for the construction of offshore wind farms.

“There is a lot of synergy between offshore wind projects and the oil and gas industry in areas such as operations, maintenance, logistics and port infrastructure”, said Wataru Nosaka, CEO of EBR.

“Our shipyard has a long-standing presence in the south of the country, training and employing thousands of workers over many decades, and that is why we warmly welcome the opportunity to jointly evaluate the potential for EBR and the region of São José do Norte to become the centre of offshore wind in the south of Brazil.”

Corio is aiming to develop five fixed-bottom offshore wind farms in Brazil, totalling up to 6 GW, together with Servtec.

Four of these projects, totalling approximately 4.8 GW, are located off the southern and south-eastern coastlines of the country.

In March 2024, Corio and Brazilian port developer Prumo signed an MoU to explore using the Port of Açu, north of Rio de Janeiro State, for the deployment of the company’s future offshore wind projects.