The great legacy that will distinguish the era of the socialist António Costa, Prime Minister of Portugal since 2015, will be the energy revolution that he promoted.
It is true that it is pushed by the urgency of the times and international institutions such as the European Commission, but Costa was one of the first leaders to embrace the climate cause and always remembers that his country committed itself before anyone else to achieving carbon neutrality .
Since then, there has been an accelerated race to get everywhere sooner: the closure of coal plants was anticipated by two years (2021) and the goals to produce 80% of electricity with renewables (from 2030 to 2026) were brought forward both. enough to obtain the desired carbon neutrality (from 2050 to 2045).
In this strategy there is not only environmental conviction:
This course has not even turned after the succession of historical upheavals that the world has been experiencing for a few years.
The war in Ukraine made gas and oil so expensive that some pressure arose on the Government to reactivate coal-fired power plants, something that Costa ruled out.
Also the weather conditions of 2022, with an extreme drought that weighed down hydroelectric production and worsened the figures.
The renewable contribution dropped to 57% and the import balance, of 18%, almost doubled that of 2021, according to the Energy Agency.
Even so, Portugal is “above the goals defined by the European Union for the implementation of renewables.
From this point of view, it is an energy revolution because, along with the disconnection of coal-fired power plants, the
mix
The energy system has been substantially altered”, says António Cardoso Marques, professor of Economics at the University of Beira Interior, by email.
The Portuguese jump is already very visible in the statistics: 72% of the energy produced in the first quarter of 2023 was of renewable origin.
Portugal is the fourth country in Europe with a less polluting electrical matrix, only behind Austria, Sweden and Denmark, according to Eurostat data.
Above all, thanks to hydroelectric and wind power.
"Everything is happening at the same time, we are witnessing a great movement of companies," says the Minister of Environment and Energy, Duarte Cordeiro by phone.
“We have created the conditions to expedite this movement.
For us it is very important to accelerate the decarbonisation of our economy”.
According to his calculations, all the projects related to the energy sector that are planned in Portugal are around 60,000 million euros.
Irregularities in the supply
The 16 gigawatts (GW) of renewable power already represent 70% of the installed power, but the disparity in its distribution also generates irregularities in the supply.
Peaks in the rainy and windy months, compared to the declines in summer.
“The country has enormous potential for solar production that is far from being used.
Parks from the 2019 auction are still being concluded," observes professor António Cardoso Marques.
To introduce stability in the market, the Government wants to boost solar (contributes 6% of the total), which lags far behind hydro (45%) and wind (35%), despite having favorable weather conditions.
“This year we are going to grant licenses for 2.5 gigawatts of solar.
We believe that we will exceed eight gigawatts in 2030," says the minister.
In January, the Environment Agency granted Iberdrola permission to build a 1,200 megawatt photovoltaic project, the largest in Europe, in Santiago de Cacém, in Alentejo.
The size of the complex does not please conservationists.
“That plant is of an exaggerated size.
We are in favor of solar energy, but we propose that it be developed in duly evaluated areas to avoid conflicts with the population and the environment.
We must avoid regretting the projects later”, points out Francisco Ferreira, president of the environmental organization Zero and professor of Science and Technology at the New University of Lisbon.
The ecologists also did not like the Government's decision to facilitate the energy transition by simplifying the processing criteria (Simplex licences) for green hydrogen production projects, wind towers that are more than two kilometers apart and solar plants that occupy less than 100 hectares, which will not have to undergo environmental assessment.
“We understand that it is necessary to speed up, but some projects are being made viable with environmental conflicts.
The great mistake of the Government is to blame the environment for these delays when it is not true, it is the bureaucracy that delays.
We never thought that a socialist government so sensitive to the climate issue would commit this great setback”, laments Francisco Ferreira.
“We have eliminated the obligation in some cases,
Windfloat Atlantic turbines, which was the first offshore wind farm in continental Europe located 20 kilometers off the coast of Viana do Castelo.Hugo Amaral (SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty)
Along with the solar deployment, the great novelty this year will be the auction of offshore wind projects, with the aim of reaching 10 gigawatts in a few years.
The areas identified by the Government as potential locations are in the public hearing phase and some are contested by conservationists for affecting areas located in the Nature Network, but business interest in settling on the Portuguese coast does not wane.
There are projects under study by the German company BayWa and the Danish fund Copenhagen Offshore Partners, among others.
The energy race has fueled technological research and has turned the country into an innovative open-air laboratory.
After the success of a pilot experience that began five years ago, the EDP company inaugurated in July 2022 the largest floating solar park in Europe, with some 12,000 photovoltaic panels (four hectares), in the artificial lagoon of the Alqueva reservoir, on the river Guadiana.
This project, which can generate 7.5 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year, also incorporates batteries to store 2 MWh.
Hybrid infrastructures, such as the one on the Guadiana river, are also another path that the Ministry of the Environment and Energy is promoting.
Another example is the Tâmega gigabattery, which Iberdrola launched in 2022 and which puts an end to one of the great weaknesses of hydraulic energy: dependence on the weather.
Thanks to a pumping system between its reservoirs, the Tâmega complex (with three hydroelectric plants, to which two wind farms will be added) allows, according to the company, "the continuous supply of electricity to the metropolitan area of Porto for 24 hours". .
“The project is a mirror in which to look at oneself as an example of a green transition.
A huge closed water circuit.
Pumping helps to integrate more renewables by avoiding their discharge during the so-called off-peak hours, when (renewable) energy is consumed to raise the water from the lower reservoir to the upper one,” explains Julio Castro, CEO of Iberdrola Renovables.
“During peak hours, when consumption is high, that same (renewable) energy is turbined to meet demand.
On the other hand, pumping provides security of supply, stored energy that is not subject to the risks of importing fossil fuels such as natural gas.
The best solution to a crisis”.
One of the reservoirs of the Iberdrola Tâmega gigabattery in Portugal.
The energy revolution advances, however, with a certain citizen limp.
The economist António Cardoso Marques warns that this transition will only be successful "if consumer empowerment is encouraged, which is crucial to achieve the degree of flexibility necessary to adapt the grid to renewable, variable and distributed electricity production."
This means, in his opinion, encouraging self-consumption and renewable energy communities, which are underdeveloped in Portugal, encouraging electric mobility or differentiated rates depending on the time of consumption.
Cardoso Marques, who has a research team in Energy Economics at the University of Beira Interior that addresses the empowerment of consumers, highlights that the energy transition is presented as something "good" that, however, notably burdens the economies households with high rates and costs.
“The energy transition process must be inclusive and allow all economic agents, individuals and companies, to participate and obtain benefits from it.
It is crucial to evolve so that the energy transition is desired and felt as their own by all ”, he concludes.
Follow all the information on
Economy
and
Business
on
and
, or in our
weekly newsletter
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I'm already a subscriber