Alcoutim council is delighted about plans for a huge solar farm plant in its municipality but dod nto know anything about it.
The Mayor of Alcoutim, Osvaldo Gonçalves, said today that he received the news with surprise and delight as he heard of the intention of a private consortium to build a photovoltaic plant on his territory.
The mayor said he was completely unaware of the plans, but said that the size of the project that he read about in the news on Tuesday would mean a boost in local employment which he claimed was like “Alcoutim winning the lottery,” and like a lottery winner, the mayor at first thought there must have been some mistake.
The Portuguese Environmental Agency indeed has received an application for a permit for a 200-megawatt photovoltaic power plant to be installed on an area of 800 hectares in the parishes of Martinlongo and Vaqueiros in the hills. The size of plant applied for, if approved would make this the biggest such facility in Portugal, currently the largest is in Moura in the Alentejo.
"This was a story that caught us with some surprise, but we were far more happy than surprised," said Gonçalves, noting that he already had been contacted by some investors who had shown interest in the area, which is an area ideally suited to photovoltaic installations due to lots of sun and no people.
The mayor said that there already is solar energy test equipment in the area set up by a local company called Enercoutim which has given "some visibility to the potential of the territory" for solar power plant.
Gonçalves added that “Alcoutim has many hectares with the right conditions to make these investments," and he says there is a desire from the Commission for Coordination and Regional Development - Algarve (CCDR-A) and from the government to approve these sorts of projects.”
Asked by news agency Lusa about the economic benefits of such an investment for a county as small and deserted as Alcoutim with its ageing population, Gonçalves said that if it were possible to "include an assembly and production plant for photovoltaic panels in the project then this would be the icing on the cake." Sadly this will not be so.
The number of jobs is purported to be 600 which the mayor of course is delighted about but how many of these are local and full time remains to be seen. Currently the town hall is the largest employer with 170 workers and younger residents have moved or are moving away to find work.
The developers of the photovoltaic farm near Alcoutim say they also will while away the hours by growing herbs among the thousands of rows of photovoltaic panels and that the equipment all will be imported from the American company First Solar, from Siemens and SMA Solar Technology both in Germany.
For further background, see:
http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/3936-alcoutim-to-host-biggest-ever-solar-plant-in-portugal
