Portugal pledges a decade of solar power development

Paul Rees 21 January 2019

Portugal’s Minister for the Environment and Energy Transition has been saying all the right things at a conference in Madrid, insisting that Portugal will be carbon neutral by 2050.

João Pedro Matos Fernandes said that the country’s emphasis will be on solar power.

Delegates at the energy transition conference heard that the 2030 goal for Europe’s power consumption from renewable source is 37%, while for Portugal the objective is to reach 47%.

The 'energy transition in the Iberian market' conference was organised by the Portuguese Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with KPMG.

Matos Fernandes stressed that "in the next decade" there will be "the greatest effort" so that Portugal, by 2050, can have 100% of the electricity consumed from clean energy sources.

"We are the best structured country in the world to be carbon neutral," said the pro-oil Environment Minister.

At an earlier climate conference in Marrakech in 2016, the prime minister, António Costa, announced Portugal’s target date to becoming carbon neutral was 2050. The Government then prepared its, "Roadmap for Carbon Neutrality" that s´currently is under public discussion.

Spain's Secretary of State for Energy José Domínguez Abascal said at the Madrid conference that his country will deliver its, "Integrated Energy and Climate Plan" in Brussels in the next two weeks.

Comments

0 #8 Denby 2019-01-24 22:56

Al,
Carbon neutral = reducing or eliminating your carbon footprint.
It seems, that this is what Portugal's intention is... to reduce it's carbon footprint by eliminating as far as possible, the need for fossil fuel.

-1 #7 AL 2019-01-23 11:06

Quoting Denby:

It's normal for politicians to lay out a nice tidy stall and put their best foot forward when an election is approaching.
To be honest, there is no reason why Portugal could not be carbon neutral by 2050.
The infrastructure is already in place to allow the country to have four consecutive days of electricity produced by renewable energy in the past 18 months.
Wind farms have doubled in the last year in Northern Portugal and new reservoir's are under construction there also, plus there is solar energy plants in Southern Portugal.

Please beware that Carbon Neutrality = Extinction of life.
All known living organisms on Earth are carbon-based organisms. It is simple chemistry.
The nutters that keep spouting carbon neutrality are ignorant of the fact that their so called renewable energy producing artifacts are all created with materials derived from hydro-carbons.
Carbon neutrality by 2050 is a completely ridiculous.

0 #6 Denby 2019-01-22 20:12

It's normal for politicians to lay out a nice tidy stall and put their best foot forward when an election is approaching.
To be honest, there is no reason why Portugal could not be carbon neutral by 2050.
The infrastructure is already in place to allow the country to have four consecutive days of electricity produced by renewable energy in the past 18 months.
Wind farms have doubled in the last year in Northern Portugal and new reservoir's are under construction there also, plus there is solar energy plants in Southern Portugal.

0 #5 Ralf 2019-01-22 14:22

If you ever had tried to reach DGEG (direcao geral energia e geologia) by phone.....you know that the goverment has no intrest that people harvest their own energy...in fact they have planned already for years with the 23% IVA on every KW/h you consume!!

0 #4 Dennis.P 2019-01-22 14:03

Excellent news ... if its genuine. Search for solar on the expat sites and you will read the fake foreigners - the Portuguese Ministry of Information types - advising, as though they too are fellow foreigners at the advantage of having EDP mains electricity. That solar and wind was too expensive, unreliable and often needing a back up generator Also no-one making clear that having your own private transformer was too often just a free handout to the thieves who steal them for the copper as ours was. Discovering too late (a dishonest insurance agent convincing us otherwise) that these transformers are uninsurable in Portugal as so many get taken.

0 #3 Sue F 2019-01-22 08:27

Hi Liveaboard. You will need to install a battery and an inverter/charger, but that's probably more expensive than buying power from EDP. We have no mains power close-by, so only use solar, but mains power is coming - slowly! As it does, those homes that connect use their solar when there's sun and then switch over to mains to avoid using a generator which is expensive and not environmentally friendly.

0 #2 liveaboard 2019-01-21 23:25

I have perfect conditions for solar electricity generation, but my usage in day is all short high amp loads; other use is at night.
So if I could feed my excess into the grid and pull it back as needed [like in some countries], it would be a cost effective investment.
For me, and many thousands of other home owners in southern Europe.
As it stands, EDP will accept my power but they won't pay me for a penny for it; they then charge me as usual for power I draw back from their network.
So where's the fun part?

-1 #1 TT 2019-01-21 21:17

Actions speak louder than words JP. Let's see some proof that this isn't pre-election bribery to be swept neatly aside once the votes are counted.

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