The potential of small wind turbines in Brazil: Current situation and perspectives

Renewable energy sources have increased their participation in the global energy matrix, mainly due to large-scale solar photovoltaic and wind technologies. Although the small wind turbines technology has encountered difficulties spreading in most countries, it constitutes a well-established renewable market mainly in few countries in North America, Europe and China. The use of this technology is significantly recent in the Brazilian market, with small wind turbines being still seldom used in the country despite its great potential following other technologies for small-scale distributed generation. For the small wind turbines to reach their full potential, it is necessary to adopt measures that support industry development and reduction of associated costs, making the technology cost competitive with other sources, especially solar photovoltaic. In this context, this article examines the Brazilian and global scenarios of small wind turbines with the goal of understanding the current status of the technology and investigating the policies with greater impact on the small wind market.