Data Centres & Networks

Will wind energy power new data centre development in northeastern Brazil?

Will wind energy power new data centre development in Brazil?

A Brazilian renewable energy company, Casa dos Ventos, has been given the go-ahead from the country’s power grid regulator for a 300-megawatt data centre project in the Pecem port complex in Ceara, northeastern Brazil.

According to the Data Centre Dynamics website, Casa dos Ventos has been in discussions with ByteDance, the Chinese partner company of TikTok, about a major data centre investment in the region.

Reuters adds that the total investment in infrastructure and equipment for the data centre development is expected to reach BRL50 billion (US$8.8 billion).

Casa dos Ventos says it now plans to start construction in the second half of this year and begin operations in January 2027.

Wind power does seem to be the likely source of at least some of the energy used by the new development. Casa dos Ventos partnered in 2022 with global integrated energy company TotalEnergies on its wind power portfolio.

In addition, Casa dos Ventos (House of the Winds in Portuguese) is said to be increasingly targeting data centre developers as crucial offtakers of its wind energy portfolio. The company has said that it has a portfolio of 3.1GW of operational wind power assets, in addition to a further 30GW currently under development.

The proposed northeastern Brazil project did suffer an early hiccup when it was rejected due to stability concerns, but a technical reassessment by Brazil’s national power grid operator and the Ministry of Mines and Energy has apparently cleared the way for authorisation of the project.

While Latin America has seen a lot of data centre activity lately, concerns have been expressed about the effect of this growth on water supplies. However, Casa dos Ventos has said its project will use closed loop cooling systems, significantly reducing water demand.



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