TikTok 'could tap wind power hotspot' for huge new data centre
Chinese social media giant's parent group said to be in talks with Brazil's Casa dos Ventos in wind-rich northeast
The parent group of global social media behemoth TikTok could tap Brazilian wind power for a major new data centre, in further sign of growing interest from the sector in the abundant renewable energy sources in South America's largest economy.
ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent group, is said to be in talks with Brazilian renewables developer Casa dos Ventos over options for powering the facility in Pecem Port in the country’s northeast.
Pecem Port in the state of Ceara sits in one of Brazil’s windiest regions that has become the focus for some of the country’s largest renewable energy developments.
Brazil’s northeast coastal region has been hailed as offering offshore-wind-like generation conditions on land, but developers have started to look for new markets such as data centres and green hydrogen production for offtake agreements amid strong competition from other sources such as hydropower over the past few years.
Transmission from the north to demand centres in southern Brazil has also proved a challenge, making options closer to the point of generation attractive.
Brazil added 3.3GW of wind power last year to end 2024 with 33.7GW in place.
Brazil has shown willingness to accommodate data centres, with power regulator Aneel earlier this year authorising 359MW of grid connection capacity for data centres in the Sao Paulo region.
Global giants Microsoft and Amazon have both flagged plans for data centre projects in Brazil, which is tipped as a global growth spot in the sector over the next decade.
Casa dos Ventos itself last year signed an agreement with OData for supply of power from the Babilônia Sul wind complex, also in the northeast.
Pecem Port also already serves as a hub for exporting wind turbine components to other regions of Brazil.
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