The focus on technological innovation is the connection that brings together Brazilian and German companies (industries), political institutions, and research organizations. In the energy sector, these actors have always come together and worked on projects promoting the trade of technologies in times of critical global energy transition movements.

Brazil is a democratic state with a growing awareness of civil society rights, especially when autocratic governmental behaviors occur. In Germany, environmental issues play a more prominent role in political and economic decisions. A recent Brazilian-German collaboration has opened up new opportunities. Brazil established the legal guidelines for offshore wind energy in 2022. The positive aspects often emphasized by Brazilian public institutions are the long-term economic success, the country’s progress, and the high confidence in the legitimacy of German political and market strategies. German wind turbine and component manufacturers are interested in exporting the respective technology to Brazil. The export of technology provides German companies with better conditions to access the required resources since plants have to be installed locally. Resource demand and related environmental impacts are not seen as a problem by many stakeholders in Brazil.

The required resources for building wind power plants are available in Brazil, but mines are often located close to local communities and sensitive ecosystems. To reduce the environmental impacts, urban mining, i.e., the use of secondary resources, could be an alternative; however, it requires the establishment of new logistics chains with unknown impacts on stakeholders involved.

The PhD thesis aims to analyze the relations between relevant stakeholders in Germany and Brazil and between the countries, considering their interests and preferences regarding future cooperation. Wind power technology is the technology of interest, since it is intended as the future backbone of the Brazilian energy system.

The outcome of this PhD project should support transdisciplinary communities, i.e., academics and non-academics represented by researchers and stakeholders. Innovative mindsets should support them in making the proposals of both countries transparent in order to determine the needs or conditions to be met for projects where technology transfer is of mutual interest. Resilience and innovation will be the two concepts investigated to define the structural requirements that affect the actors’ decisions, e.g., private companies, OEMs, political institutions, NGOs, research organizations, and organizations.

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