Tâmara Barreto Cidade Has Built a Career on the Forefront of Renewable Energy

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Tâmara Barreto Cidade begins her day at 4 am. The US general counsel for Low Carbon Generation at Repsol is in the middle of training for a HYROX competition. Cidade will run one kilometer, then move on to a functional workout station like sandbag lunges, sled pulls, and ski ergs, repeating this cycle eight times. The attorney gets her workout out of the way in the morning, because after work her son has soccer practice and there just won’t be time otherwise.

HYROX is a new one for Cidade. Fitness has always been a focus, but she keeps upping the ante on her goals, just the same as she’s done in her professional life. The GC has built a legal department from scratch at Repsol, but it’s only the latest accomplishment in an incredibly entrepreneurial career.

Cidade got her introduction in the energy space in her native Brazil. After graduating from law school and gaining experience at premier firms, she was invited to join a developer building wind energy projects. The move unknowingly put her at the crux of Brazil’s renewable energy awakening. In 2006, her company secured the country’s earliest window Power Purchase Agreements, pioneering projects that delivered Brazil’s first 200 megawatts of wind generation when renewables were virtually nonexistent in the region.

As Brazil’s clean energy sector surged to become the world’s fourth largest by 2025—wind and solar now account for over a third of national electricity generation—Cidade can now harbor some pride in building the initial foundation for such aggressive growth.

After international stints, including a key role in developing 350 megawatts of wind generation in Mexico, Cidade returned to Brazil with a vision for distributed generation. She co-founded Helio Energias Renováveis, where she managed all legal aspects, negotiated contracts, and raised substantial capital ($26 million in equity-loan financing). Cidade continued to shape Brazil’s solar market by adapting American legal forms and building industry policy alongside the early ABSolar organization.

Her company experienced some market turbulence, and the founder was eventually bought out. The experience grounded the attorney in building something from the ground up, in scaling, and selling renewable projects, all important components of her next big role.

But that role wouldn’t be founding another company. Cidade’s life had changed, and she wanted stability to raise her family.

“I wanted a permanent job instead of this feeling that whatever I was building was made to sell,” Cidade explains. “I also wanted to find a place where my being Brazilian was valued, not just tolerated. Repsol loved the fact that I came from Brazil.”

Cidade joined Repsol in 2022 as one of its first ten US-based Renewables division employees. Today that employee population stands at 160+, a team that has helped generate 1.4 gigawatts of low-carbon energy, with much more in the literal pipeline.

Repsol made its mark in oil and gas. This massive picot, backed by billions in strategic investment, sees the company expanding from Spain and Europe into US markets, executing projects like the record €800 million renewable methanol plant in Tarragona and acquiring portfolios like Asterion Energies (7,700 MW), with asset rotations financing next-generation green developments.

Cidade built out the legal capacity from a team of one to a growing team tackling both transactional and regulatory challenges as Repsol monetizes, finances, and optimizes its utility-scale assets across the board.

Throughout her extensive tenure in the energy sector, Cidade has learned to embrace the confidence to show up as her authentic self. In an industry that still leans predominantly male, she’s occasionally encountered well-intentioned but outdated attempts at humor—comments or “my wife” jokes that reflect a different era.

“I’m not someone who usually makes a fuss about these things, but it can wear on you,” Cidade says. “I’m grateful that at Repsol, my diversity—both as a woman and as someone from outside the US—is genuinely valued and supported.” Cidade’s own leadership is rooted in giving her team the space to succeed and be themselves in the process. The leader values balancing work and family life and does her best to model the behavior she wants to see from her own team. That includes understanding her own value and standing toe-to-toe with any peer in the space when it’s called for.

Cidade’s influence has contributed to positioning Repsol’s renewables portfolio at the forefront of European ambition. The company is pursuing 20 GW of new renewable capacity by 2030, backed by major solar, wind, hydropower, renewable fuels, and green hydrogen projects. Asset rotation, the strategic selling of stakes in mature wind and solar farms, ensures continual funding for new infrastructure, advanced digital optimization, and the operation of multi-energy hubs critical for grid resilience and climate adaptation.

Pursuing that effort in the US has brought its own set of challenges, as the green-energy environment remains uneven. Even so, Cidade notes that her team is committed to ensuring Repsol makes the strongest possible choices for its shareholders.

In coming to Repsol, Cidade sought some semblance of normalcy, but the fact remains that she’s still working on at the forefront of renewable energy, a space that needs the best and brightest among us to help chart a cleaner and greener future. Cidade needs a challenge, and we’re all the better for it.

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