The Portuguese Ministry of the Environment, in cooperation with grid operators, has approved a series of new photovoltaic projects to be connected to the grid.
The developer promises to bear the cost of strengthening the electricity infrastructure and avoiding increased regulatory fees for the national power system, thereby obtaining a grid connection license.
This is the first time since June 2019 that the Portuguese government has ensured that new photovoltaic power generation capacity will be connected to the grid.
In total, the ministry has granted grid connection licenses for the upcoming 5GW of projects for connection to the high-voltage grid, and 1GW for connection to grids operating at lower voltage levels.
These projects are mainly centralized power plant photovoltaic systems, and some include energy storage systems, with a maximum project capacity of 480MW.
Portugal, like other European countries, is committed to accelerating the transformation of renewable energy. In 2020, it passed the "2030 National Energy and Climate Plan PNEC", and revised the energy strategic plan again in July this year. Renewable energy accounts for 80% of the electricity used in the country, reaching 85% by 2030.
The revised plan sets a cumulative photovoltaic installed capacity of 20.4GW in 2030, of which 14.9GW will come from utility-scale photovoltaic systems and 5.5GW will come from distributed photovoltaic systems.
The new plan also includes improvements to the authorization process, designated area planning, a regulatory framework for distributed photovoltaic systems and energy communities, and new financial incentives.
In 2022, the newly installed photovoltaic capacity in Portugal will be about 890MW, and the cumulative installed photovoltaic capacity will be about 2.59GW by the end of 2022, exceeding the growth rate of other renewable energy sources in the country.
Although photovoltaics are developing rapidly in Portugal's renewable energy, the long environmental impact assessment process for photovoltaic projects by the Portuguese Environment Agency has somewhat affected the speed of its project installation promotion.
In the first half of 2022, 546MW of installed capacity will be added, and only 344MW of installed capacity will be added in the second half of the year.
From January to April 2023, Portugal will only add 118MW of new photovoltaic installed capacity.
The problems faced by photovoltaic projects in Portugal are not only environmental impact assessment permits, but also the shortage of installation labor and the possible shortage of grid capacity in the future, which may affect the application of new photovoltaic projects in the future and the installation of photovoltaic projects that have been approved in the past. Let photovoltaic project developers have concerns about Portugal's photovoltaic development potential.
Nevertheless, Portugal has also shown its determination to step up efforts to develop the photovoltaic market in order to promote the clean energy transformation market, and actively seeks to expand cooperation among renewable energy countries. The photovoltaic modules imported from China account for about 85% of Portugal's share.
2022 is the year when Portugal will make a breakthrough in new photovoltaic capacity. Although the new installed capacity in 2023 is not high, driven by its renewable energy targets and new permits, it is expected that Portugal's photovoltaic new capacity will increase in 2023. The installed capacity may double that of 2022, or even nearly 2GW of new capacity.