Variabilidade do vento e potencial para energia eólica offshore no litoral Sul do Brasil

Abstract

Southern Brazil is the second region which most generates wind power in the country and its capacity could further increase if offshore resources would also be explored to this end. Offshore wind power generation is expanding in several regions of the globe but in Brazil, particularly in its southern portion, prospection studies are still scarce for this modality. In this context, the present study has as main objective to analyze the potential for offshore wind power generation in the southern coast of Brazil, and to evaluate if the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) is a good tool when used for wind energy prospecting studies. For this, the simulations results were compared with data from the Blended Sea Winds product from the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The numerical experiment was carried out during a 5-year period, between 00UTC of 01/01/2006 until 00UTC of 31/12/2010. The domain has a total of 340 grid points in the zonal direction, 180 points in the meridional direction and 35 vertical layers with the top set at 50 hPa. This area comprehends the entirety of the Southern region of Brazil (Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul states), Uruguay and part of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The possibility of hydro-wind complementarity in the region was also observed using precipitation data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). In conclusion, it was found that the southern region of Brazil has great potential for offshore wind power generation and the possibility of hydro-wind complementarity, and it is possible to use the WRF model to evaluate the exploitation of wind power generation in the region.