Avaliação do potencial eólico no Pico dos Dias em Brazópolis/MG

Abstract

Currently in Brazil, the renewable energy production sector has been growing considerably, especially in the production of photovoltaic and wind energy. Compared to the rest of the world, the Brazilian wind sector occupies the seventh position in the ranking of countries that produce the most energy from wind. It is to be expected that in a continental country, with several coastal regions, it has great potential to be exploited from wind flow. If only this were not enough, due to the great global concern with the environment, new technologies are emerging to improve and reach new levels in sustainable energy production. With this same perspective, this work has as main objective to evaluate the wind potential in Pico dos Dias. This region has complex orographic characteristics and is located between the municipalities of Brazópolis in the south of MG, approximately 1864 meters above mean sea level. The challenge of this work is to understand how the wind flow behaves over this region. To achieve this goal, the National Astrophysics Laboratory assisted in this study, providing meteorological data for the region and in the construction of a Reduced Model that represented in scale the orography of Pico dos Dias, was printed on a 3D printer. After this stage of work, the Reduced Model was tested in the wind tunnel, where several tests were carried out to verify the conditions that the wind flow over Pico dos Dias offers for the production of electricity. With the results of both the wind tunnel test and the analyzes carried out on meteorological data, it was possible to select the size of the most suitable examples of wind turbines for the location. After this work phase, a financial feasibility analysis was carried out around each chosen wind turbine model. The results of this analysis showed that at a minimum attractiveness rate of 4.59%, three of the four turbine models evaluated showed positive profitability indicators. At the end of this work, it was possible to demonstrate, from a meteorological and financial point of view, that Pico dos Dias can generate energy through the flow of the wind that passes over this region.