China’s Mingyang makes new Brazil breakthrough with utility tie-up
Deal is Mingyang’s second to be announced in Brazil but machine is expected to be first the Chinese manufacturer installs in Latin America
Chinese wind turbine maker Mingyang has landed an order for what will be its first installed wind turbine in Latin America with a major Brazilian utility that is expanding into the sector.
Mingyang announced today that it has “joined forces” with Companhia Paranaense de Energia, better known as Copel, to install one of its MySE 6.25-172 machines.
The turbine will be shipped from China, installed in early 2025 and commissioned in the second quarter.
Although Mingyang announced a 240MW turbine order with an undisclosed customer in January, this is expected to be its first installed turbine in Latin America.
The turbine will be added to an existing Copel wind farm in northeastern Brazil.
"This achievement is much more than just a simple sale of a wind turbine," Mingyang's LatAm manager Marco Wobeto wrote on LinkedIn. "It's the realization of a dream."
"After years of hard work, facing many challenges, we have achieved something that fills my heart with pride: our first wind turbine on the American continent, right here in Brazil."
This would also make Mingyang, which opened its São Paulo office in 2021, only the second Chinese OEM to install a wind turbine in Brazil. The first, Goldwind, has so far largely sold smaller, older models of turbines than it produces for the Chinese market.
Another Chinese OEM, Envision, has turbines installed at two wind farms in neighbouring Argentina, as well as Chile and Mexico.
"Mingyang follows Goldwind into a Brazilian market where they have faced increased pressure on wind energy development amidst competition from hydro, but also a stronger focus on solar capacity additions," said Philip Totaro, founder and CEO of renewables market intelligence consultancy IntelStor.
"This has left much of the domestic wind energy manufacturing capability in Brazil decimated due to lack of firm order book."
"A pioneering order with a Brazilian utility will allow Mingyang to gain a greater foothold in that market, since it comes at a time where relaxed local content rules will allow the country to take advantage of cheaper Chinese turbines manufactured overseas and imported."
While cheap Chinese turbines are a contentious issue in the West, Brazil now has "less of a domestic industry to protect" and its developers and utilities will likely therefore "welcome the lower cost alternative" as their margins are squeezed by a limited number of offtake auctions.
Despite pressure from hydropower, Brazil installed a record amount of onshore wind capacity last year, 4.8GW, and Totaro said he expects the wind market to "bounce back" in the coming years.