Brazil launches new buoy to evaluate potential for offshore wind farms

Brazil began using equipment capable of measuring the speed and direction of the wind at sea, which makes it possible to evaluate the potential for the installation of offshore wind farms, considered key in the future as non-polluting sources of energy, local media reported yesterday.

Named Bravo (Portuguese acronym for Offshore Wind Evaluation Remote Buoy), the buoy was developed by the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) in partnership with the Senai Institutes for Innovation in Renewable Energies (ISI-ER) and Embedded Systems (ISI-SE) and began to be used by the state-owned oil company Petrobras.

The project began in 2021 and is scheduled to last two years; it has a total investment of R$9 million (US$1.7 million).

In addition to measuring wind speed and direction, Bravo can process atmospheric pressure, air temperature, and relative humidity, as well as information on waves and ocean currents.

The buoy, about 2.5 meters in diameter and 3.5 meters high, was installed off the coast of Rio Grande do Norte (northeastern Brazil) and will allow access to the data over the next seven months collected on-site via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or satellite.

The buoy is an alternative to fixed wind measurement towers, which have a higher installation cost.