“Petrobras has a track record of using intense technology to enable large maritime projects, and the execution of pilot projects is one of the tools to acquire the necessary knowledge in conjunction with the initiative of the biggest offshore wind mapping campaign in Brazil,” said Petrobras’s Energy Transition Director, Maurício Tolmasquim.
Building a wind energy pilot project in the Rio de Janeiro sea will allow us to test and quality new technologies. This will help define elements to increase competitiveness and the chief challenges to be overcome to develop future projects on a commercial scale. Several aspects of offshore wind energy aspects will be assessed to identify bottlenecks and technical issues, considering the particularities of one of the Brazilian regions with the most significant potential for integration with the decarbonization of Petrobras’s E&P decarbonization activities. The company has run, since 2020, a campaign to measure potential wind energy through the Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) technology on the Autonomous Repumping Platform (PRA-1) in the Campos Basin.
“This partnership with Petrobras, recognized for innovating the use of new technologies and the considerable potential to generate offshore wind energy in Brazil, is an important effort for our process to establish Rio de Janeiro as a key player in the domestic energy transition and secure a sustainable future for the state,” declared Cláudio Castro, Governor of Rio de Janeiro.
The cooperation with the state of Rio de Janeiro is combined with the protocol of intentions published on December 3, 2023, for the joint evaluation of the implementation of a CO2 (CCUS) capturing and storage hub pilot regarding the development of a project in the northern region of Rio de Janeiro with a capacity to hold 100,000 tons of CO2 per year.
“These studies will enable Petrobras to analyze future offshore wind opportunities under analysis at the National Congress after the sector is regulated. Research and innovation are a part of our daily work, and we are applying the excellence of our Research Center so we can be, once more, pioneers in the use of new technologies in Brazil,” stated the Engineering and Technology Director, Carlos Travassos.
