Portugal Puts Its Energy Into Renewables

Portugal has long been renowned for its year-round warm climate including over 300 days of sunshine and its endless Atlantic coastline, two elements that have made it a firm favourite for overseas property investment. However, these elements are now being harnessed in a major drive to boost Portugal’s economy.

Areas such as the Algarve and Silver Coast (running from Lisbon to the city of Aveiro) are well-established on the Portugal property investment map and development and associated tourism in these regions has done much to drive the local economies forward. Portugal remains one of western Europe’s poorest countries and with no primary resources of its own and highly reliant on external energy sources, Portugal’s economy has failed to take off. Conscious of the country’s poverty, the Socialist government has decided to harness Portugal’s natural energy sources to bring much needed wealth to the economy.

The national New Energy Policy was approved in 2005 and the Minister of Economy and main instigator of the policy, Manuel Pinho, believes it will provide Portugal with the opportunity to prove that it is good at something. “Not using Portugal’s vast natural resources for energy would be like Venezuela not using its oil,” he claims.

The policy has the ambitious objective to make Portugal a world leader in renewable energy. To achieve this, its main aims are for 60% of Portugal’s electricity and 31% of its energy needs to be supplied by renewable energy sources by 2020. There are also advanced plans for a national network for electric cars. Four years after the policy’s implementation, Portugal is already proving it means business – by 2010, the country will have the lowest CO2 emissions per capita in the EU and several renewable energy installations are record breakers. For example, the 120 wind turbines turning in the Alto Minho region in the north form the largest onshore windfarm in Europe, Amaraleja in the south is home to the world’s largest photovoltaic solar energy plant and innovative wave farms are already installed off the Porto coast.

The push for renewable energy has brought triple benefits to Portugal – not only is the country contributing significantly to the fight against global warming, Portugal is gradually reducing its expensive dependence on external energy and the country’s economy has received an uplift. Employment figures have been boosted by 10,000 new jobs created since 2005 and a further 22,000 more are expected to be generated by 2020.

James Gonzalez, Market Analyst at Obelisk Investment Property, believes the renewable energy policy will bring Portugal to the forefront of Europe. “This is perhaps the break Portugal has been waiting for,” he says, “and if the objectives are met, renewable energy and related R&D should make a substantial contribution to the economy. I think we can expect to see a major change in Portugal’s investment profile over the next few years.”

News submitted  by Alison Kane, Obelisk International