The mayors of the Intermunicipal Community of the Region of Leiria (CIMRL) are demanding that the government define compensation amounts to offset the negative impact of possible offshore wind energy production concessions.
In a press release, CIMRL states that Portugal intends to “move forward with the licensing of offshore renewable energy on a large scale over the next few decades”.
The situation is being monitored by the region’s mayors, since the “preliminary proposal for the implementation of offshore renewable energy projects provides for a concession” in the municipality of Figueira da Foz, in the district of Coimbra, “covering 1,325 square kilometers (the largest project with a power of 4 GW)”, which “interferes with the coastal area of the municipalities of Pombal, Leiria and Marinha Grande (Praia da Vieira),” says CIMRL.
The mayors of the Leiria region are in favor of a “compensation amount for the regions and professionals in the fishing sector who have seen their activity partially restricted”.
CIMRL also wants an “independent technical-scientific assessment to analyze the estimated economic, environmental, climate and biodiversity impacts of building new offshore wind installations in areas where they could conflict with the fisheries sector”.
The mayors are following the development of this process and are taking part in the work of the consultative commission for the preparation of the Allocation Plan for the Exploitation of Renewable Energies in the Mainland subdivision.
In order to learn more about the nature of offshore wind energy exploitation, the mayors of Leiria, Gonçalo Lopes, and Marinha Grande, Aurélio Ferreira, visited the Windfloat Atlantic project in Viana do Castelo, “a unique floating offshore wind farm that has been fully operational in Portugal since 2020, with three floating platforms and around 25MW of installed capacity”.
“This contact was relevant for gaining a closer understanding of the main positive and negative aspects of offshore wind energy production,” adds the CIMRL statement, noting that the auction to award the new concessions will be open by the end of 2023, “with the pre-qualification phase expected to be completed in the first few months of 2024”.
CIMRL adds that “this national project has a direct investment forecast of 20 billion euros and seeks to accompany the European Union’s (EU) commitment to the European Green Deal, to make Europe the first continent with a climate-neutral impact” and to adopt a target of “reducing net emissions by at least 55 % by 2030 compared to 1990 levels”.