The government has approved a €24 million wind farm near Batalha which will saddle the public with 'feed-in tariff' subsidy payments as the project was proposed in 2009 when such subsidies still existed.
The project in the Serra d'Aire, is controlled by Eneólica, part of the Lena Group whose boss is a key figures in Operation Marquês, accused of channelling illicit funds to the former Prime Minister José Sócrates in return for lucrative contracts.
Lena Group director, Joaquim Barroca Rodrigues, was arrested in 2015 on suspicion of fiscal fraud, money laundering and corruption while a former director, Agostinho Ribeiro is involved in a biomass subsidy con and faces charges of fraud and money-laundering. This newly annouced licence is for a project dating back to 2009 and so attracts the full green energy subsidy, payable to this privately owned company by Portugal’s taxpayers.
The 20 Megawatts capacity wind farm alledgedly will cost €24 million and is the third wind project authorised by the current government under a tendering procedures carried out way back in 2008 and 2009, seemingly without a start date specified.
Eneólica is a subsidiary of Lena Energia SGPS, S.A., itself part of the Lena group whose boss, Carlos Santos Silva, is involved in Portugal’s largest ever corruption case suspected of chanelling €23 million to José Sócrates in payment of 'favours.'
The company has two wind farms - the Marvila 2008 wind farm (I) in Batalha, with an installed capacity of 12MW, and the 2008 Sicó Wind Farm with a capacity of 20MW in the mountain range of Lomba, Pombal. Both are heavily subsided by taxpayers under the generous feed-in tarrif scheme that ended this year.
Energy Secretary, Jorge Seguro Sanches' office, confirmed that this third wind farm also is covered by a feed-in tariff subsidy whereby the private company gets paid well above the market price for energy produced.
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