Portugal to install 890MW of photovoltaic capacity in 2022

Portugal to install 890MW of photovoltaic capacity in 2022

Portugal installed 890MW of photovoltaic systems in 2022, according to provisional figures recently released by the Portuguese Directorate General of Energy and Geology (DGEG). But this figure is far lower than the 1140MW predicted by the agency in early 2022, and the 2.5GW predicted by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association in its "EU Market Outlook Report" released.

As Raffaele Rossi, head of market intelligence at the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, recently pointed out in an interview with industry media, this data mismatch may be due to the fact that PV projects auctioned in Portugal in 2019 and 2020 missed the installation deadline until the end of last year. date. In October last year, the Portuguese government raised the auction price. It turns out that developing these projects is not profitable against the backdrop of inflation and rising equipment prices.

However, a spokesman for the Portuguese Renewable Energy Association (APREN) said that the growth of the country's PV market was mainly driven by the coming online of large-scale projects, with 784MW of PV systems installed in Portugal by the end of November 2022. About 546MW of photovoltaic systems were installed in the first half of last year, which means that the installed capacity of photovoltaic systems in the second half of the year was only 344MW.

The region with the highest installed capacity of photovoltaic systems in Portugal is the Alentejo region, with 177MW of photovoltaic systems installed. According to Portugal's Directorate General of Energy and Geology (DGEG), the region will account for 48% of the country's photovoltaic power generation in 2022.

Spain-based Iberdrola and Prosolia's plan to build a 1.2GW photovoltaic power plant in the Alentejo region has recently been approved. The project will become the largest photovoltaic power plant in Europe after completion.
Cumulatively installed photovoltaic systems in Portugal reached 2.59GW by the end of 2022, surpassing the installed capacity of all other renewable energy sources installed in the country since 2013.