A 90 million euro photovoltaic facility with 190 thousand solar panels across 192 hectares has been opened in Fundão by the Spanish company Dos Grados. The Fundão Solar Photovoltaic Plant, according to Luis Palacios, CEO of Dos Grados, will prevent the emission of 826 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide annually and generate renewable energy equal to the yearly use of 61 thousand homes and businesses.

Luis Palacios explained “This is a step towards a more sustainable future”, emphasising that the company’s first solar plant is a source of clean energy and that the project’s advantages exceed its drawbacks. According to the CEO, the corporation is looking into increasing its investment in wind storage since they are “necessary to make production more flexible, which is intermittent”. Investments in electro-intensive consumption, like data centres or electrolysing plants, are being examined for the “near future” in order “to combine electro-intensive consumption with the renewable generation part”.

As Luis Palacios claimed, “We want to be pioneers in innovative solutions”. Furthermore, the Secretary of State for Energy, Maria João Pereira minister emphasised the significance of renewable energy for the nation's decarbonisation. With 35% of consumption from renewable energy last year and 51% target by 2030, there’s still a "long way to go" according to the minister. The photovoltaic plant, which has been installed on private land in the parishes of Alcaria, Pêro Viseu, and Valverde, enabled the creation of 10 jobs