Demonstrators demand transparency over Beira Baixa’s solar projects – Portugal Resident

Dozens of campaigners from the Beira Baixa were in Castelo Branco today, demonstrating against what they see as the lack of transparency in the promotion of two ‘mega’ solar projects, (Beira and Sophia) both ostensibly ‘vetoed’ by state environment agency APA – but still somehow with a conceivable chance because the government seems loathe to let them fall.

This was a perfect example of the cleft stick that the country is in with its focus on renewable energies: yesterday, the minister of environment and energy was talking of fast-tracking projects and expanding their scope. Maria da Graça Carvalho wants to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels by half within the next eight to 10 years – but to do so, the government needs to actively promote renewable energy projects, and some of these will be in areas where the people say ‘no!’ This is the situation of the Beira Baixa projects,

There is more, however, to today’s protest: due to the position of the government, APA has not issued the documents that protestors say should have been released, detailing why the projects are environmentally unviable. To try and force APA’s hand, the Platform in Defence of the Tejo International Natural Park has sent a formal complaint to the Commission for the Access to Administrative Documents.

Samuel Infante, among protestors in Castelo Branco, told Lusa: “This process is not transparent. We want the law to be complied with. As citizens, we have a right to (APA’s) information. The project promoters, as far as we know, have had access to all of it. This situation is completely unacceptable.”

Thus, between songs, chants and the waving of banners, demonstrators delivered a letter to APA’s headquarters in Castelo Branco, demanding access to missing documents on the environmental impact assessments of the Beira and Sophie photovoltaic projects.

In the letter, signatories pushed for immediate publication, on the Participa portal, of the reports from the projects’ public consultations, as well as a clear explanation as to why these documents were made available to the promoter/s before being made public.

They also demand a guarantee that no irreversible decision will be taken without all relevant information being made public in a timely manner and accessible to all citizens.

Finally, in the letter – co-signed by the Castelo Branco Regional Branch of Quercus, the Gardunha Sul Civic Movement, Citizens for Beira Baixa, the Platform in Defence of the Tejo International Natural Park and the ‘Prout Research Institute Portugal’, a commitment is also demanded that future large-scale projects in Beira Baixa must be subject to a strategic environmental assessment that takes into account cumulative effects.

As the letter was being delivered, signatories asked to sign the complaints book – which, as Lusa put it: “did not physically exist at the APA office and which is required by law” – prompting the summoning of PSP police, who “took charge of the incident.”

Lusa recalls that it was APA’s assessment committee that rejected the Beira photovoltaic power station project after identifying “significant negative impacts on ecological systems and land use”.

Regarding the Sophia photovoltaic plant, APA announced in February that it had identified “significant and very significant negative impacts” within the project.

The Sophia project covers the municipalities of Fundão, Idanha-a-Nova and Penamacor, in the district of Castelo Branco, and represents an investment of around €590 million, for an installed capacity of 867 MWp (megawatts peak).

The Beira plant, meanwhile, involved the installation of 425,600 photovoltaic modules, with a total capacity of 266 megawatts (MW), across an area of 524.4 hectares in the municipalities of Castelo Branco (Monforte da Beira, Malpica do Tejo, Benquerenças, the Union of Parishes of Escalos de Baixo and Mata, and Castelo Branco) and in Idanha-a-Nova (Ladoeiro and the Union of Parishes of Idanha-a-Nova and Alcafozes).

Source material: LUSA