Danish Eurowind Energy with investment of over 400 ME in Portugal
Pedro Pereira, director of the company for Southern Europe, told journalists that, “until the end of this decade, [serão investidos] 400 ME” in the construction of several projects, including small production photovoltaic parks in Covilhã, Castelo Branco, Mafra, Vouzela and Bragança, with a total installed power of 50 megawatts (MW).
“Half will start soon and the other half by the end of this first half to enter into exploration next year”, he added.
The Danish company also has three other projects planned for Castelo Branco, two wind and solar parks and a green hydrogen project.
“We have the objective of hybridizing our projects with solar and wind, joining technology to store energy”, he explained.
The official warned of several difficulties that the renewables sector faces in Portugal and that are related to the delay in issuing opinions and licenses, legislative inconsistencies, lack of human resources” in various bodies such as the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology and undersizing of the National Electricity Grid due to deficiency and incapacity of electrical injection points.
“There is a great delay in the dispatch of processes, which explains why, to reach the exploration of a park, it has taken six years, which puts aside the investment”, he said, referring to the Parque Solar de Triana, today inaugurated in municipality of Alenquer, in the district of Lisbon.
However, he accepted the Government’s simplification effort to comply with the green agenda.
At the inauguration of the investment of 18 million euros, the company’s CEO, Jens Rasmussen, stated that they are “committed to building more parks in the country”.
The park has an installed capacity of 22 MW, spread over 41,000 photovoltaic modules over 30 hectares.
The promoters estimate a production of 41.5 gigawatts per year, capable of supplying electricity to more than 14 thousand families.
At the inauguration, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate, Ana Fontoura Gouveia, said that 57% of the electricity produced in Portugal already comes from renewable sources and the objective is to increase to 80% by 2026.
The country already has an installed capacity of 2.5 GW and the goal is to increase from 1 to 1.2 GW this year.
To simplify licensing processes, the `Simplex Environmental` program was launched.