Marine Technology Reporter Blogs - ceara

The R/V Meteor research ship arrived in Fortaleza, Ceara, on Brazil’s Equatorial Margin last Friday, June 28th. The Meteor which has a complement of 30 scientists of different nationalities, including one Brazilian, left port on Monday as it begins another Atlantic crossing to Namibia in West Africa, where it is due to arrive on July 29th. Along the voyage the ship will be collecting samples and data from deep waters, to be analyzed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers, composed of chemists, biologists and physicists. The only Brazilian aboard is Marcio Pereira, a 63 year old professor of Oceanographic Physics from the Geophysics department of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), whose studies will be concentrated in variations of marine currents.

This month the first serious experiment with wave energy officially begins in Brazil. The first wave energy plant in the country was installed in the northeast state of Ceará, more specifically in the port of Pecém, located 60km from the state capital Fortaleza and will be officially launched during the Rio+20 taking place in Rio de Janeiro. With the Brazilian coastline being 8,000km long, scientists from COPPE/UFRJ, estimate that with wave energy plants up and down the coast the country could produce up to 87 gigawatts of which 20% could conceivably be converted in electricity, this would add up to 17% of the country´s total installed electrical energy capacity.

The use of automated equipments is on a steady rise in Brazilian shipyards, which are looking to be more competitive and meet order demands. A modernized production line is a necessity for the national shipyards in order to be internationally competitive and to honor contract schedules. Basically all the shipyards are investing in automation to a larger or lesser extent. At this point the Brazilian shipyard which has most invested in automated systems is the EAS shipyard (Estaleiro Atlantico Sul) at the Suape complex in Ceará, northeast Brazil. It is also the biggest shipyard in operation in the country and has a partnership with Korean shipbuilding giant Samsung Heavy Industries.