Local authorities from Moura, in the Beja district, and Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portel, Alandroal, and Mourão in the Évora district, met this week with the Minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, to express their concerns.
“If the lake is filled with photovoltaic panels, it will undoubtedly penalize the type of tourism that Alentejo wants and needs,” stated Marta Prates, mayor of Reguengos de Monsaraz, to Lusa news agency.
Álvaro Azedo, the mayor of Moura, expressed to Lusa that the project “is going in the direction of completely damaging what is being built around the reservoir,” referencing the “dynamics of tourism, sport, and preservation of the water element.”
The project is promoted by EDP, which in 2022 won the bid to exploit 70 megawatts (MW) of solar energy in the Alqueva reservoir, planned for an area spanning the municipalities of Moura, Portel, and Reguengos de Monsaraz.
During his comments to Lusa, the Moura mayor argued that “these photovoltaic investments do not bring any added value to the municipalities, quite the contrary.”
“Developing the region is not about taking from the region to Lisbon and large companies the result of what the territory offers, but also about disseminating development factors and state investments throughout the region,” he emphasized.
Noting that in Moura alone, the floating photovoltaic plant will cover 40 hectares, Álvaro Azedo highlighted that in a specific area, the dam “will retain a navigability corridor.”
“This will completely ruin what is also transformational and has been a great benefit to the region,” he warned, pointing out the negative impact solar panels will have on the navigability of the reservoir.
The Moura mayor also lamented that municipalities are not consulted about these projects.
The mayor of Reguengos de Monsaraz noted that these municipalities “are already plagued, constantly, by all sorts of deficiencies” and choose to focus “on local products to showcase to people and tourism.”
“Reguengos de Monsaraz until recently relied almost exclusively on agriculture and viticulture and now already has a very interesting portion of income from tourism,” with “many families depending” on the sector, she stated.
Marta Prates argued that tourists from North America or Scandinavian countries “are knowledgeable visitors who greatly value the relationship between price and quality,” which is incompatible with this type of project.
“Any North American tourist is not going to want to navigate Lake Alqueva amidst photovoltaic panels. The natural beauty is spoiled, the tours are ruined,” she added.
The five municipalities have also requested a meeting with the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) to present their concerns.
Since 2022, EDP owns a floating solar power plant in the Alqueva reservoir with a capacity of five megawatts (MW), featuring 12,000 floating solar panels over four hectares of the Alqueva dam reservoir.
