World Wind Energy Award 2007 goes to Government of Brazil for Proinfa Programme

Mar del Plata/Bonn (WWEA) – On the occasion of the 6th World Wind Energy Conference 2007 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, the Board of the World Wind Energy Association has decided to give the World Wind Energy Award 2007 to Brazil for the successful creation and implementation of the Renewable Energy Incentive Programme Proinfa which boosted the development of wind energy utilisation in Brazil.

The Award has been given today by WWEA President Dr Anil Kane to the following persons who have all contributed greatly to this achievement:

· The Honourable Ms Dilma Vana Rousseff, Chief of Staff Minister of Brazil and former Minister for Mines and Energy,

· Ms Laura Porto, Director of the Department of Renewable Energy of the Ministry of Mines and Energy,

· Mr Valter Luiz Cardeal, Director of Engineering and current President of Eletrobrás,

· Dr. Sebastião Florentino da Silva, Coordinator of the Unity of the Proinfa Programme at Eletrobrás.

Under the leadership and supervision of the named persons, the existing wind potential of Brazil has become exploited in a way which makes Brazil the leading wind energy country so far in Latin America. Since the introduction of the Proinfa programme, power purchase agreements with a total capacity of 1423 MW have been made which will all be operational by December 2008. Today Brazil has an installed wind energy capacity of 237 MW in total, out of which 208 MW were added in the year 2006, under the Proinfa programme.

WWEA sees the creation and implementation of the Proinfa programme as an excellent example how an emerging country can introduce wind energy on a large scale. A fixed feed-in tariff guaranteed for a fixed period of time has already helped especially several European countries such as Denmark, Germany and Spain to boost their national wind industry. Brazil is the first country in Latin America which has set up regulations that are following these successful principles, however, taking wisely into account the specific conditions in the country.

An important part of the Proinfa programme therefore is the requirement that wind farms must contain a minimum of 60 % of local content. This requirement has lead to the creation of a strong domestic wind industry, in cooperation with international wind turbine manufacturers.

The creation and implementation of Proinfa would never have been possible without the contribution and wise political decisions taken under the responsibility of Honorable Minister Dilma Vana Rousseff in her capacity as Minister for Mines and Energy, as well as Ms Laura Porto as Director of the Renewable Energy Department. Mr Valter Luiz Cardeal, as Director of Engineering of Eletrobrás and Dr. Sebastião Florentino da Silva, as Coordinator of the Unity of the Proinfa Programme at Eletrobrás, have been in charge of the successful and probably not always easy implementation of the programme. Of course the awarded persons are working with the support of big teams and many dedicated persons which unfortunately cannot all be mentioned and honoured in person but should see the award also as an appreciation of their work.

WWEA hopes and expects that the World Wind Energy Award 2007 will encourage the Government of Brazil to continue its strong support for wind energy and hopes that other governments in the region and worldwide feel encouraged by the Brazilian progress and will set up similar frameworks, learning from the vast experiences already made.

Ms Silvia Suárez, Secretary for the Environment of the Province of Buenos Aires, received the World Wind Energy Honorary Award 2007 for the great support the Province gave to making WWEC 2007 a success with 600 participants from 40 countries.