Portugal installed 890 MW of solar in 2022

Portugal added 890 MW of new PV systems in 2022, according to provisional figures from the country’s Directorate General for Energy and Geology (DGEG). The figure falls far short of the 1,140 MW predicted by the DGEG, and as well as the 2.5 GW prediction in SolarPower Europe’s latest “EU Market Outlook” report.

The mismatch is likely because 2019 and 2020 auction projects missed their installation deadline at the end of last year, as discussed by SolarPower Europe’s head of market intelligence, Raffaele Rossi, in a recent interview with pv magazine. In October, the Portuguese government offered a remuneration boost to winners of these auctions, which had proved non-bankable amid rising inflation and equipment prices.

Nevertheless, growth has mainly been driven by large-scale projects going online, with the country adding 784 MW of new capacity by the end of November, a spokesperson for the Portuguese Association of Renewable Energy (APREN) told pv magazine. Portugal added around 546 MW of new PV systems in the first half of 2022, meaning it installed just 344 MW in the second half of the year.

The region that added the most solar was Alentejo, accounting for 177 MW of new installations. The region was responsible for 48% of national solar generation in 2022, according to the DGEG.

Spain-based Iberdrola and Prosolia secured approval this week for the construction of a 1.2 GW solar plant in the Alentejo region, which is set to become the largest such project in Europe upon construction.

Portugal’s cumulative solar capacity hit 2.59 GW at the end of 2022, outpacing the growth of all other renewable energy sources in the country since 2013.