Stephan Nielsen – Bloomberg, 07/11/2012
Wind-farm developers in Brazil may be forced to halt construction on some projects within 15 days because the state development bank BNDES is freezing financing for turbines purchased from suppliers it claims aren’t meeting local-content requirements.
Without loans from Brazil’s biggest wind-farm financier, developers are unable to pay for equipment they’ve already agreed to buy, Elbia Melo, executive president of the Sao Paulo- based wind-energy trade group Associacao Brasileira de Energia Eolica, said today in a telephone interview.
BNDES, formally Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social, temporarily suspended loans last month for turbines from five foreign manufacturers with operations in Brazil that it says aren’t obtaining enough components from domestic suppliers.
