Mapping the Optimal Sites for Offshore Wind Power Plants and Green Hydrogen Production: South and Southeast Brazilian Case Study.

The demand for renewable energy solutions has become a global trend due to the current climate change scenario and the increased demand for electricity. Hence, in several countries, the share of renewable sources in the electric matrix has grown with the insertion of new energy sources, such as offshore wind. Brazil presents optimal conditions for the construction of offshore wind farms. The Brazilian 10-year Energy Expansion Plan 2029, in addition to placing this source as an expansion for the coming years, intensely focuses on hydrogen. For this reason, this study aims to assist planners and agents interested in running new construction projects of offshore wind farms with green hydrogen production. Such a study case seeks better use of the available wind resources in the high energy consumption regions of Brazil’s South and Southeast, assessing the wind resource considering technical, environmental, social, and economic restrictions to identify the best locations for installing wind farms. As such, it processes the data within a geographic information system, and then a fuzzy logic-based model is used for the joint evaluation of constraints. Results show that Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo are the most favorable places.