Portugal

Portugal’s renewable energy association Apren said that Spain has paved the way for further development of renewables on the Iberian Peninsula with its recent 3 GW auction, and that a similar tender is needed to revive the country’s solar and wind power sector.

The Portuguese company invested $31.8 million in the transaction. The solar park is located in Ferreira do Alentejo, in southern Portugal.

Work on this huge solar project without subsidies is expected to begin in the first quarter of this year.

French floating PV specialists Ciel & Terre have installed a 220 kW PV installation at a hydroelectric dam on Portugal’s Rabagão River. Though a comparatively small installation, this represents the first time the two technologies have been used in tandem at utility scale.

Approval of law could propel solar sector into the fast lane, where PV is still playing catch-up to a soaring wind industry.

Portugal added 16.8 MW of solar PV in May and June, but latest figures show that micro generation is still the country’s dominant sector.

Portugal added only 1.1 MW of solar PV in the first four months of 2013. The Mediterranean country is on track for EU renewables targets, but thanks to wind and hydro.

Seventy percent of Portugal’s power generation came from renewable energies, mainly hydroelectric power and wind energy, in Q1 2013, according to the country’s grid operator, Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN). Despite this record, photovoltaic energy still fails to have significant presence in the energy mix.

A report published by the Portuguese energy regulator, the DGGE (Direcção Geral de Energia e Geologia), on Thursday January 10, says cumulative solar power capacity in Portugal at the end of October 2012 reached 193.3 MW.