Algarve municipalities are set to sign a formal agreement this Friday, the 18th of October, in Loulé aiming at the creation of a regional cooperation network for the self-consumption of renewable energy. The ceremony will take place at 9 am at the Gama Lobo Palace.
One factor that is worth pointing out is that the agreement that is going to be signed is simply a memorandum of understanding, meaning that an official partnership can be established, however it is not legally binding and only carries a degree of seriousness due to mutual respect between the municipalities.
The memorandum was developed under the European StoRES project “Promotion of higher penetration of distributed PV through storage for all”, funded by the Interreg MED Program, which aims to involve local authorities in establishing a regional cooperation network for self-consumption of renewable energy, and energy communities.
The idea is to foster the increased implementation of photovoltaic energy and related energy storage solutions in the Algarve region.
Since the Algarve is a region with a high potential for renewable energy production, namely solar energy, this resource could be especially useful saving money on processes involved in production of hot water and electricity generation itself.
In a statement, Loulé Council reaffirms that energy and the environment are areas that have recently taken on a greater weight in defining municipal policies, particularly in regards to taking local actions to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Simultaneously, in Portugal there have been recent advances in the field of environment policy foreseen in the National Energy and Climate Plan (PNEC), as well as in the 2050 Decarbonization Roadmap, which has put the issue of energy and the environment on the local and regional agenda, and underlined the urgency of finding solutions.
