'The way to ensure cheaper electricity is by investing in renewables' Portuguese Minister of the Environment opened the largest unsubsidized photovoltaic power plant in Portugal

The Portuguese Minister of Environment and Climate Action João Pedro Matos Fernandes claimed that generating electricity from renewable sources will contribute in the future to setting lower electricity prices.

At the opening of the Riccardo Totta photovoltaic power plant in Alcoutim, João Pedro Matos Fernandes noted that the implementation of green energy production projects will ensure not just the reduction in carbon emissions, it will also offer greater price stability compared to fossil fuels.

The Minister also claimed that the high costs in electricity production in Portugal have to do with the rise in gas prices, which is "super expensive", and the other source of electricity production in our country.

"The way to ensure cheaper electricity production is by investing in renewables, and solar more so than others, in an undeniable way", he said, adding that this investment will also allow us to reduce our dependence on foreign markets, contributing to "ensure much greater price stability in a near future".

Regarding the impact of reducing costs in electricity production using renewables, Matos Fernandes stated [this impact] "is already felt" and "in a very positive manner".

"When the price of electricity went up five-fold in the wholesale market, the price in Portugal for the consumer went up 1.6% this year and we strongly believe that next year there will be no rise", he mentioned.

Target to generate electricity from solar power may be brought forward

The Minister also said that at the moment, Portugal has gone over the 2 gigawatts of electricity generated using solar power and that the target for 2030 stands at between 8 to 9 gigawatts. Yet, with the projects already licensed "and with what is happening on the ground", this target may be brought forward to 2025.

"Everything that in the past was a cost, objectively it was a cost, is nowadays a gain. Even with fixed tariffs, which in this case are the market tariffs, today it represents a price stability and a stability that is represented positively in the electricity bills the Portuguese will pay next year", he concluded.

Riccardo Totta photovoltaic power plant

The Riccardo Totta photovoltaic power plant has a capacity of 219 megawatts and is currently the largest unsubsidized one operating in Portugal, and one of the largest in Europe.

The project has 661,500 panels installed that take up a staggered area of 320 hectares. In total, there are 40 transformation stations that connect the plant's substation with the substation belonging to the National Electricity Grid (REN) in Tavira.

Developed by WElink Energy/Solara4 jointly with China Triumph International Engineering Company (CTIEC), according to the developers, it is around five times bigger than the Amareleja power plant which, in 2008, was the largest solar power plant in the world.

It is estimated that this power plant will spare 326 thousand tonnes of CO2, the same as the amount of energy used by 200 thousand homes in one year.