Chinese developer advances another hybrid energy project in Alentejo – Portugal Resident

Chinese renewable energy developer Chint Solar is pressing ahead with another hybrid project in the Alentejo, adding a solar plant, wind farm and battery storage complex near Montemor-o-Novo to a rapidly expanding portfolio across the region.

The latest development is relatively small by Chint’s standards. Its planned solar component will contain more than 98,300 photovoltaic panels, alongside 10 wind turbines and a large battery installation.

But the Montemor project forms part of a much bigger picture. Chint inherited a Portuguese development pipeline containing 6.6 gigawatts of prospective solar capacity – the overwhelming majority of it concentrated in the Alentejo.

Several of those projects are on an altogether different scale.

The company is already seeking licences for solar and battery developments totalling more than 1.3GW in the region, including the São Gião and Tapada Grande solar plants, with respective capacities of 564MW and 580MW, and the 111MW Monte Santos project.

The wider Alqueva-Portel cluster presented in June would involve approximately 2.17 million solar panels spread across projects in Portel and Vidigueira. It would have 1,256MW of solar capacity, almost 900MW of battery storage and estimated annual production approaching 1,900GWh.

Together, the developments raise increasingly urgent questions about how much of the Alentejo’s countryside will be transformed into energy-production territory — and where all that electricity is ultimately intended to go.

Solar, wind and batteries at Montemor

The Montemor-o-Novo project combines a 66MW-peak photovoltaic plant, a 45MW wind farm and a battery energy storage system rated at 50MW, capable of storing 100MWh.

Its maximum injection capacity into the national public electricity network will be 50MVA.

Chint estimates that the complex will generate more than 217,000MWh annually, equivalent to the consumption of almost 66,000 homes, while avoiding more than 45,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

The company says the development will bring lasting benefits through renewable electricity production, employment, tax revenue, rents for local landowners and increased attractiveness for “sustainable investment”.

It also argues that the project can coexist with traditional land uses including grazing and forestry.

Such claims are increasingly being challenged by communities confronting the cumulative impact of solar plants, wind turbines, battery installations, substations and the high-voltage transmission corridors required to connect them.

The electricity may be described as green at the point of generation, but transporting immense quantities of it requires extensive industrial infrastructure across land that is presently rural, agricultural and/ or ecologically sensitive.

A pipeline of giants

Chint Solar entered the Portuguese market by acquiring SolCarport from Germany’s ProEnergy in 2023, inheriting a portfolio of exceptionally large proposed developments.

According to data previously compiled by Jornal Económico, these include:

• Cavandela, in Castro Verde — 504MW
• Cafelado, in Viana do Alentejo — 504MW
• Monte Coito, in Mértola — 504MW
• Baldio de São Romão, in Reguengos de Monsaraz — 450MW
• Herdade Colar de Perdizes, near Montijo — 420MW
• Porto Mouro, in Ferreira do Alentejo — 390MW
• Monte das Flores, in Évora — 480MW
• Monte Novo and Amieira, in Vidigueira — 372MW

The company already has approval to connect more than 3.8GW to Portugal’s electricity networks.

Around 3.3GW has been authorised through direct agreements with national grid operator REN, under which Chint bears the cost of building the necessary grid connections. A further 500MW has been approved through agreements with distribution network operator E-Redes.

The company told Negócios in June that grid-connection infrastructure for the Alqueva-Portel cluster alone was expected to cost approximately €122 million. The electricity would enter the public network through a new high-voltage switching substation in Portel.

Chint cited the availability of large estates, intense solar exposure, grid capacity, proximity to the Alqueva dam and interconnections with Spain among its reasons for concentrating investment in the region.

It already operates the 48MW Ínsua solar plant in Serpa and began building a 73MW installation in Albergaria-a-Velha in May.

Another proposed hybrid complex in Vidigueira would combine 340MW of solar capacity, two wind turbines and batteries capable of storing 620MWh. Portugal’s environment agency has requested more detailed information before that project proceeds further through the assessment process.

How much is too much?

Individual environmental assessments examine projects within defined boundaries. The more difficult question is what happens when dozens of nominally separate developments, grid connections and transmission routes are imposed on the same broad landscape.

Portugal’s proposed “Green Map” has already provoked resistance by identifying more than 1,300 areas where renewable projects could receive accelerated approval. Municipalities and local campaigners fear that agricultural land, wildlife habitats and distinctive landscapes will be sacrificed to meet national and European energy targets.

The Montemor complex may appear moderate beside Chint’s largest schemes. Its importance lies in the accumulation.

The Alentejo is being asked to accommodate not simply another solar plant, but an expanding industrial energy network the output of which could far exceed local demand and be moved through high-voltage infrastructure towards other markets.

The region may help power Portugal and Europe’s transition. The unresolved question is how much of the Alentejo itself will remain recognisable once that transition is complete.

Source material: Jornal Económico