Basic infrastructure is an essential element to characterize a country. In this text we will address Brazil's basic infrastructure, divided into three areas: communication (submarine communication cables, satellites), energy (distribution system, hydroelectric, solar, wind, thermal, nuclear and geothermal networks) and transport (ports, airports, highways, railways and waterways).
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| ROADS (GREEN NET, DEEP LAYER), WATERWAYS (BLUE LINES, DEEP LAYER), RAILWAYS (ELETRIC ORANGE, FIRST NET LAYER), NATIONAL ELETRIC SYSTEM (PINK NET, SECOND NET LAYER), SUBMARINE COMUNICATION CABLES (OCEAN DEEP LILAC LINES), LEVEL 1 AIRPORTS (GREEN-WHITE RINGS), LEVEL 1 PORTS (FLUVIAL: WHITE SHIP, MARITME: BLACK SHIP), NUCLEAR PLANTS (ICON), TOP 5 THERMIC NON NUCLEAR (VIBRANT GREEN SQUARES) AND TOP 10 HYDROELETRIC (ELETRICITY ICON) |
1. COMUNICATION
1.1 SUBMARINE COMMUNICATION CABLES
15 submarine communication cables are connected to Brazil (AMX-1, Americas-II, Brazilian Festoon, BRUSA, EllaLink, GlobeNet, Junior, Malbec, Monet, Seabras-1, SAm-1, SAC, SACS, SAIL and Tannat), with a 16th under construction (Firmina); for reference and details, see Tecnoblog/Quais cabos submarinos existem no Brasil?. For a world very accurate map of all submarine cable, see Visual Capitalist/Submarine Cables Full.
2. ENERGY
Overall, for 2021 (Wikipedia), Brazil was the sixth largest electrical energy product in the world, with 663 TW, after China (8,534 TW), U.S.A. (4,154 TW), India (1,715 TW), Russia (1,110 TW) and Japan (1,020 TW). Of the world's large economies, Brazil has the cleanest energy base, with 89.1% (EMBER).
Brazil's electricity production and transmission system is a large hydro-thermal-wind system, with a predominance of hydroelectric plants and multiple owners. The National Interconnected System is made up of four subsystems: South, Southeast/Central-West, Northeast and most of the North region. The interconnection of electrical systems, through the transmission network, facilitates the transfer of energy between subsystems, allows synergistic gains to be obtained and exploits the diversity between the hydrological regimes of the basins. The integration of generation and transmission resources allows us to serve the market safely and economically (ONS).
Unified, there are 2,581 energy generating units in Brazil (CCEE), being eolic (1,002), hydreletric (965), thermic (476, including nuclear plants) and solar (396).
The length of Brazil's basic transmission network is 179,311 km in 2022, and includes seven capacity bands, from 230 to 800 kV ONS).
A complete map of the national electrical system is available at ELETROBRAS.COM.
:: Obs.: SNI connected eolic (13.12 %), hydreletric (50.1 %), thermic non nuclear (18.63 %), nuclear (0.92 %) and solar (5.22 %) energy forms correspond to 87.98 % of energy in Brazil; the remainig includes Distributed Micro and Minigeneration (MMGD in Portuguese), with 12.02 % of national production (ONS).
2.1 HYDROELETRIC ENERGY
Brazil has 147 hydroelectric plants (UHE) integrated into the National Interconnected System (SIN) and jointly operated by the National Electric System Operator (ONS), until 2019 (Wikipedia), in addition to possibly 718 small hydroelectric plants (PCHs) connected at SNI (CCEE). In total, there are 965 hydroelectric generating plants, accounted for 58.21 % of the country's installed energy capacity in JAN 26, 2024, and 50.1 % of all electricity generated in 2021 (ONS). Three of the plants in the country are among the ten largest on the planet. They are Itaipu Binacional, Belo Monte and Tucuruí (UM SO PLANETA).
Brazil stands out for being the 3rd largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world, with 362.82 TW in 2023, behind only China with 1,300 TW and Canada with 380.85 TW (Statista). All of the 8 largest energy plants in the world are hydroelectric plants, 4 of which are Chinese (1', 2', 4', 7'), 3 Brazilian, Itaipu Binacional (Brazil/PR, Paraguay, 2', 14 MW) and Belo Monte (PA, 5', 11.3 MW), and one Venezuelan (Wikipedia).
2.2 EOLIC ENERGY
In Jan 26, 2024, Brazil reached 1,002 eolic plants connected with SNI genering 29.63 GW in more 10,000 turbines, corresponding to 14.78 % of the total installed Brazilian electricity matrix at SNI (CCEE) and 13.12% of all electricity generated in 2021 (ONS), placing Brazil in sixth place, behind only China (365.9 GW), the United States (140.8 GW), Germany (66.2 GW), India (41.9 GW) and Spain (32.8 GW), by APeMEC (SEE). Rio Grande do Norte is the largest producer for Brazil (7,872 MW, ~1/4 of national production, Estadão).
The 10 largest wind farms in Brazil total 5.267 GW of installed capacity, corresponding to around 1/5 of the national capacity. Nine of them are in the Northeast region (EPBR).
2.3 SOLAR ENERGY
In Jan 26, 2024, Brazil reached 396 solar plants connected with SNI, genering 11.28 GW of centralized generation, corresponding to 5.63 % of the total installed Brazilian electricity matrix at SNI (CCEE) and 5.22% of all electricity generated in 2021 (ONS). According to data from the Brazilian Photovoltaic Solar Energy Association (Absolar), also there are 24.9 GW of distributed generation, made up of smaller residential and commercial systems size (Portal Solar) not connected with SNI.
The 10 largest solar parks in Brazil total 6,769 GW installed, c. 1/5 of national production. 4 are in Minas Gerais and 6 in the Northeast (EPBR).
2.4 THERMIC ENERGY (INCLUDING NUCLEAR)
In Jan 26, 2024, Brazil reached 476 thermic plants connected with SNI with 40.84 GW of installed power, corresponding to 21.36 % of the total installed Brazilian electricity matrix at SNI (CCEE) and 18.63 % of all electricity generated in 2021 (ONS); however, in 2022, there were 2,513 enterprises that explored energy sources of fossil origin, 22 of which were mineral coal, 180 were natural gas, 4 were heat. of the process, and 2307 of petroleum derivatives (Wikipedia), also considering plants not connected to SNI.
The 5 non-nuclear thermal plants with the largest capacity in Brazil (via CCEE) are Porto de Sergipe I (SE, natural gas, 1.593 GW), UTE GNA I (RJ, gas and steam, 1.338 GW), Termorio (RJ, gas and steam, 0,989 GW), Termomacae (RJ, gas, 0,922 GW) and Norte Fluminense (RJ, gas and steam, 0.869 GW).
:: only three America Latina´s countries have nuclear power plants: Argentina (three reactores, Atucha I, Atucha II and Embalse), Brazil (two reactores, Angra I and Angra II) and Mexico (only one nuclear power station in operation, Laguna Verde, Veracruz state); the share of nuclear in their national energy mixes is extremely low and makes 2% of the total electricity production in Mexico, about 0.92% in Brazil (ONS, 2021) and around 4% in Argentina (Rosatom Newsletter).
2.5 GEOTHERMIC ENERGY
Brazil's geological conditions do not allow for any viable initiative on thermal energy in the country. For an excellent text on the topic, see Roberto N. Onody (IFSC/USP, 2020). A excellent review article on the topic in the country is Arboit et al. (Revista do Departamento de Geografia, USP, vol. 26, 2013).
2.6 WAVE ENERGY
There is very little literature on obtaining energy from waves in coastal areas. For an excellent text on the topic, see Veerabhadrapp et al. (Global Transitions Proceedings, 2022). The first plant in America Latina to use the movement of sea waves to produce electrical energy was located in the port of Pacém (CE, Asmetro), and had the potential to produce 100 KW (Baitz, Article, USP). Today it is abandoned (Diário do Nordeste, SET 2023).
3. TRANSPOSTS
A very accurate map of transport logistics in Brazil can be consulted at GEOFTP.IBGE.
3.1 ROADS
The Brazilian road network has 1,720,909 km (Anuário CNT), being the 4th largest in the world (Wikipedia), but only 213,500 km (12.4%) are paved. Under federal administration there are 75.8 K km, of which 65.4 K km correspond to paved highways and 10.4 K km correspond to unpaved highways.
The longest highway in Brazil, BR-116, crosses the country from Fortaleza (CE) to Jaguarão (RS). In total, it is 4,660 km long, crossing approximately 280 cities in ten states (Mobilidade Estadão).
3.2 RAILWAYS
Brazil has 29,817 km of railways (Wikipedia), 30.27% electrified, being the 9th country with the largest railway network in the world, but only the 4th in the Americas, after the U.S.A. (220,480 km), Canada (49,422 km) and Argentina (36,966 km).
The Brazilian railway network is divided into four types of gauges. There are 4,057 km in broad/Irish gauge, which is 1.6m; another 202.4 km in standard/international gauge, which is 1,435 m; another 23,489 km in metric gauge, which has 1m; and also 396 km in mixed gauge (Wikipedia).
There are only two railways for long-distance passenger transport: the Carajás Railway (PA-MA) and the Vitória - Minas Railway (MG-ES, Wikipedia).
3.3 AIRPORTS
When analyzing Brazil's airports, a definition criterion needs to be defined in order to be able to list them. Considering only airports managed by Infraero (47; SEE) or under concession (39), named here as LEVEL 1 AIRPORTS, we have 86 in total in the country, according to Wikipedia List (SEE) in JAN 25, 2024. Here, state (6, except São Paulo), municipal (470), private (18), EMBRAER (1), DAESP (23, only São Paulo state) and Brazilian Space Agency (2) airports are excluded, totaling 520 exclusions.
By state (Infraero/Concessioned): Acre (0/2), Amapá (1/0), Amazonas (0/3), Pará (6/0), Rondônia (1/0), Roraima (2/0), Tocantins (1/0) | Alagoas (0/1), Bahia (2/5), Ceará (1/0), Maranhão (0/3), Paraíba (2/0), Pernambuco (3/0), Piauí (2/0), Rio Grande do Norte (0/1), Sergipe (0/1) | Distrito Federal (0/1), Goiás (1/0), Mato Grosso (1/0), Mato Grosso do Sul (3/0) | Espírito Santo (1/1), Minas Gerais (7/4), Rio de Janeiro (4/2), São Paulo (3/8) | Paraná (0/4), Rio Grande do Sul (3/1), Santa Catarina (3/4).
In total, including private aerodromes and airports, Brazil has 2,717 terminals (more than 2000 private ones), which puts the country in 2nd place worldwide in absolute number, behind only the U.S.A., with 19,633 (melhoresdestinos.com).
3.4 PORTS
On the government website of the National Port System (SEE) 74 ports for Brazil are listed, classified as 39 on status fluvial, one fluvial dubious status (Ladario, MT), 18 status Organized Delegates (two fluvials,FT one aforecounted, Porto Velho; Manaus; and 16 maritmes) and 17 status public (two fluvial, Santarém and Porto do Conde, and 15 maritmes).
A map for fluvial ports in Brazil, see GOVBR.TRANSPOSTS.
3.5 WATERWAYS
Brazil, largely thanks to the Amazon river complex, has the 3nd largest river network in the World, with 50,000 km (The World Factbook). An exclusive map of Brazilian waterways: SEE. Some data about Brazilian wateways is available in Portos e Aerportos/Hidrovias.
4. REMARKABLE CONSTRUCTIONS
AMAZON TALL TOWER OBSERVATORY (ATTO) ‣ a scientific research facility in the Amazone of Brazil. The site's infrastructure includes a 325-metre-tall that extends far above the forest canopy and two 80-metre (260 ft) towers that allow researchers to collect samples from the soil surface to above the forest canopy. Additionally, there are container-labs, a base camp and nearby sites for studying vegetation and soil processes. The tall research tower is one meter taller than the Eiffel Tower and is currently the tallest structure in South America (Wikipedia).
ALCANTARA LAUNCH CENTER ‣ Alcântara Space Center is a space center and launching facility of the Brazilian Space Agency in the city of Alcântara, located on Brazil's northern Atlantic coast, in the state of Maranhão (Wikipedia), the largest project of its kind for a America Latina country and the second most important on the continent after Kourou in French Guiana. ASC has unique characteristics such as the privileged location of the available sites, approximately 2º18 ‘south of the equator; proximity to the sea, which makes it possible to launch into polar and equatorial orbits; low population density; absence of earthquakes and hurricanes; low density of air traffic; and ideal location for responsive launches, among others (Space Watch).
PRAIA FORMOSA EOLIC PLANT ‣ although some lists list the Alto Sertão I Wind Complex (BA, SEE), Lagoa dos Ventos (PI, SEE), and João Câmara (RN, SEE) as the largest in Brazil, in highly disconnected rankings, here we follow the CCEE on Jan 27, 24 and consider in this lists the Praia Formosa Wind Farm, in Camocim (CE), with an installed capacity of 104.4 MW and is made up of 50 Suzlon S-88 Wind Generators (Wikipedia).
SERRA DO MEL I SOLAR PLANT ‣ by CCEE, Serra do Mel 1, in the municipality of the same name (RN) is the most powerful photovoltaic plant in Brazil, with a capacity of 137.48 MW on Jan 27, 24 (also in Portal Solar).
PORTO DE SERGIPE I THERMIC PLANTS ‣ Porto de Sergipe I Thermoelectric Plant is the largest natural gas thermoelectric plant in Brazil and Latin America, it is located close to the Inácio Barbosa Maritime Terminal and the existing Barra dos Coqueiros wind farm in Barra dos Coqueiros, municipality of Greater Aracaju, in the State of Sergipe (Wikipedia).
MONAI HOLE ‣ the Monai Well, located in the 145 km off SE of Espírito Santo and NE Rio de Janeiro, in ES-M-669 prospect area, is the deepest well ever drilled in Brazil, with a water depth of 2,366 m, reaching a depth of 7,700 m, thus reaching 9,966 m below sea level (PETRONOTÍCIAS), and the largest in the salt layer ever drilled in the country, with around 4.8 km (A Gazeta).
RIO NITEROI BRIDGE ‣ Rio-Niterói Bridge is a box girder bridge crossing Guanabara Bay, in the State of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil; it connects the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niterói. It is currently the second longest bridge in America Latina, after the Metro Line 1 bridge (Lima, Peru), and the 48th longest in the world in 2020; from its completion in 1974 until 1985 it was the world's second-longest bridge, second only to the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Lousiana, U.S.A. (Wikipedia).
ANGRA DOS REIS NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS ‣ only three America Latina countries have nuclear power plants: Argentina (three reactores, Atucha I, Atucha II and Embalse), Brazil (two reactores, Angra I and Angra II) and Mexico (only nuclear power station in operation, Laguna Verde, Veracruz state); the share of nuclear in their national energy mixes is extremely low and makes 2% of the total electricity production in Mexico, about 3% in Brazil and around 4% in Argentina (Rosatom Newsletter). Angra Nuclear Power plants are only is Brazil's only nuclear power plant, located at the Central Nuclear Almirante Álvaro Alberto on the Itaorna Beach in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, with two pressurized water reactors, Angra I, with a net output of 609 MWe, first connected to the power grid in 1985 and Angra II, with a net output of 1,275 MWe, connected in 2000 (Wikipedia).
INPE ‣ INPE is a research unit of the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations, the main goals of which are fostering scientific research and technological applications and qualifying personnel in the fields of space and atmospheric sciences, space engineering, and space technology. While INPE is the civilian research center for aerospace activities, the Brazilian Air Force's General Command for Aerospace Technology is the military arm. INPE is located in the city of São José dos Campos, São Paulo (Wikipedia).
SIRIUS SYNCHROTRON ‣ Sirius is a diffraction-limited storage ring synchrotron light source at the Laboratório Nacional de Luz Síncrotron in Campinas, São Paulo State, Brazil, with a circumference of 518.4 metres (1,701 ft), a diameter of 165 metres (541 ft), and an electron energy of 3 GeV; the produced synchrotron radiation covers the range of infrared, optical, ultraviolet and X-ray light. Sirius will be the second particle accelerator in Brazil, next to the UVX, also operator by the LNLS. Brazil and Argentina are the only countries in South America to operate particle accelerators (Wikipedia).
INSTITUTE BUTANTAN ‣ a Brazilian biologic research center located in western part of the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Instituto Butantan is a public institution affiliated with the São Paulo State Secretariat of Health and considered one of the major scientific centers in the world, one of the largest immunobiologicals and biopharmaceuticals producer in America Latina (and one of the largest in the world), and a world-renowned for its collection of venomous snakes, as well as those of venomous snakes, spiders, insects and scorpions, also developing antivenoms and medicines against many diseases, which include tuberculosis, rabies, tetanus and diphtheria (Wikipedia).
GUARULHOS AIRPORT ‣ busiest airport in Brazil in terms of transported passengers, aircraft operations, and cargo handled in 2012, placing it as the 2th busiest airport in America Latina and in southern Hemisphere by passenger traffic (36,596,326 in 2016) after Mexico City International Airport and Soekarno Hatta International Airport in Java, Indonesia, respectively; Guarulhos has slot restrictions, operating with a maximum of 45 operations/hour and being one of the five airports with such restrictions in Brazil (Wikipedia).
PORT OF SANTOS ‣ located in the city of Santos, state of São Paulo, Brazil. As of 2006, it is the busiest container port in America Latina; in 2016, it was considered the 39th largest port in the world for container handling, and the 35th per ton, according to the AAPA - American Association of Port Authorities ranking, being the busiest in America Latina, and 2th in southern Hemisphere after Panjung Priok in Java, Indonesia (Wikipedia).
ITAIPU DAM ‣ Itaipu Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Paraná River located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay; Itaipu Dam's hydroelectric power plant produced the second most electricity of any in the world as of 2020 (14 GW), only surpassed by the Three Gorges Dam plant in China at electricity production (Wikipedia).
YACHTHOUSE RESIDENCE CLUB ‣ Yachthouse Residence Club is a complex of twin skyscrapers in the coastal city of Balneário Camboriú, Santa Catarina state, southern Brazil. At 281 metres (922 feet) and 81 floors, the two buildings are the tallest in Brazil and the second-tallest in South America (second only to Gran Torre Santiago in Chile) since their completion in 2020 (Wikipedia).
5. BRAZILIAN INFRASTRUCTURES OUTISIDE BRAZILIAN TERRITORY
5.1 COMANDANTE FERRAZ ANTARTIC STATION ‣ Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station (Estação Antártica Comandante Ferraz) is a permanent Antarctic research station named after the Brazilian Navy Commander Luís Antônio de Carvalho Ferraz (1940–1982), who visited Antarctica many times with the British exploration team and managed to convince his government to create a self-guided Brazilian Antarctic Program. Located in Admiralty Bay (Portuguese: Baía do Almirantado), King George Island, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, 130 km north of the peninsula, the station began operating on 6 February 1984, brought to Antarctica in modules by the oceanographic ship Barão de Teffé and several other Brazilian naval ships. It now houses about 64 people, including researchers, technicians and staff, military and civilians.
In total there are 43 fixed scientific bases in Antarctica (Wikipedia), belonging to 19 countries, one in Africa (South Africa), four in Asia (India, China, South Korea and Japan), two in Oceania (Australia, New Zealand), eight in Europe (Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Italy, Germany, France, United Kingdom and Czechia) and 5 in the Americas (U.S.A., Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile). Only 5 countries have 3 or more bases: Argentina (6), Russia (5), Chile (4), U.S.A. (3) and Australia (3).
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| BRAZILIAN COMANDANTE FERRAZ ANTARTIC STATION |
5.2 SATELLITES (N2YO) ‣ as of Jan 26, 2024 there were 11,957 satellites in orbit around the world, owned by 90 individual owners. 7,384 belonged to the U.S.A., representing 61.75% of the total. This is followed by Russia/USSR (1,551), China (676), United Kingdom (654), Japan (207), India (109), France (94) and ESA (93). Brazil, with only 21 of its own satellites (SEE LIST), is only 23rd on the list.
22 of the 90 satellite owners are not single countries, but entities or projects (16, including NATO, ESA and the ISS itself) and consortia of countries (6). Of the six consortia, two are European, one Asian and three transcontinental: Turkmenistan/Monaco (1), Brazil and China (3, SEE) and Brazil and U.S.A. (1, SEE). In the Americas, outside the U.S.A., satellite owners include Canada (79), Argentina (38), Mexico (13), Chile (5), Venezuela (3), Ecuador (2), Peru (2), Bolivia (1) and Uruguay (1).
6. SOME INFRASTRUCTURES MISSING IN BRAZIL
6.1 HIGH SPEED RAILS ‣ the International Union of Railways defines high-speed rail as public transport by rail at speeds of at least 200 km/h (124 mph) for upgraded tracks and 250 km/h (155 mph) or faster for new tracks. Altogether, 29 countries have railway lines that reach speeds of over
200 km/h. Among these, there are 19 European countries (considering
Turkey as European), 8 Asian countries (including Hong Kong and Taiwan,
distinct from China), as well as the USA (13th, 735 km) and Morocco
(22nd, 186 km). In the Southern Hemisphere, there are only lines in
Indonesia, and none in Latin America. (Wikipedia).
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| LENGTH OF THE HIGH-SPEED RAILWAY LINES IN OPERATION WORLDWIDE IN 2022, BY COUNTRY (STATISTA) |
Regarding the supposed high-speed train in Brazil, the strongest proposal, from the private company TAV Brasil, includes a 378 km long section, at a speed of 350 km/h, connecting São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro, with stops at São José dos Campos (SP) and Volta Redonda (RJ), based on news at Revista Forum/2023.
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| INFOGRAPHIC ABOUT BRASIL HIGH SPEED RAIL, IN 2010, AT SUPERINTERSSANTE MAGAZINE (SEE); CLICK TO ENLARGE |
6.2 GEOTHERMICAL PLANT (Roberto N. Onody, IFSC/USP, 2020) ‣ Brazil's subsoil does not have a reasonable geothermal heat flow, as it is in the center of the South American tectonic plate, which, on the one hand, protects the country from large earthquakes, on the other, means that geothermal energy is used almost exclusively for tourist and recreational purposes (thermal baths). The huge Guarani aquifer system provides low temperature water that is used only for recreation in the states of Goiás (Caldas Novas), Minas Gerais (Araxá), Piratuba (Santa Catarina) and Olímpia, Águas de Lindóia and São Pedro (São Paulo).
Today, the largest producer of geothermal electrical energy is the United States. 'The Geyser' field in California alone, made up of 22 plants, generates more than 1.5 GW of power. Next come Indonesia, the Philippines, Türkiye and New Zealand. But the largest producer of geothermal electricity per capita is Iceland. With 600 hot springs and 200 volcanoes, 25% of all electrical energy comes from geothermal sources!
GEOTHERMIC PLANTS IN WORLD BASED ON CORO & TRUMPY, JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION, 2020
Currently, geothermal plants are responsible for around 0.4% of all electricity produced in the world. It's too little. According to an estimate by the World Energy Council, conventional geothermal plants could reach (at best) 8.3% of global electricity production. A list of the 10 largest geothermal plants in the world is available in Dows Climate Care (SEE).