Season 5 episode 3: The House of the Winds

Carla Cohen, Asset Owner, TotalEnergies: When I was a child this strong wind was so annoying. Like, covering ourselves, our towels with sand. So it's funny to see, how now it's so involved in my life, like, working and turning this wind into energy. The wind here is so strong, that trees don't grow up straight. It’s a perfect spot for wind generation. These strong winds will help us move forward towards a net zero carbon future together with society. The first wind turbine was installed in Brazil 30 years ago. And this site here, Rio do Vento, shows how far we've come since then. This is a particularly big site, it's the largest one in Brazil and one of the top ten in the world. I am responsible for our renewables activities in Brazil, which is through our joint venture with Casa dos Ventos. The name itself means “House of the Wind”. - Hi Bruno. - Good morning, how are you? To work in an infrastructure of this size you need good partnerships. We have been exploring these synergies with Casa dos Ventos. What is the capacity of this site?

Bruno Gigliotti, Project Manager, Casa dos Ventos: We have one gigawatt of installed capacity as of now. This is the biggest wind farm in Brazil and we are aiming to reach 12 GW of installed capacity. You know, it's enough to power around one third of the households of the whole country. We have 240 turbines here. The wind here is very good so this means this energy is very competitive for our clients. We're manufacturing everything from car batteries to chemicals to footwear. You see those guys? They're local to the area. This site is a huge boost for this region as they provide alternative jobs for the locals.

Carla Cohen: Around 90% of the electricity generated in this region comes from wind, solar and hydro. So it creates another pool of regional development, it creates local jobs. Before the wind energy, the trade was much smaller around here. And job opportunities were much fewer. The main employment was farming. The land owners, they receive their rental. This is very important for them and they call it their retirement. People around [here], they are very proud of having this site because they saw the development that the wind industry brought to their locations. - Hi Jose, how are you? - I’m good and you? The municipality of Riachuelo is located close to our complex and overlooks the Rio do Vento site. And Casa dos Ventos promotes this type of action, this type of support for projects like the Interliga District “Music For Everyone”, a way to promote another movement locally. I grew up in a working class neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. I got a scholarship from the Brazilian government to be able to study abroad. So I feel that I have this responsibility to bring something to the society, to this country. Working with TotalEnergies fulfilled these ambitions.