The Government is preparing a plan for the population’s acceptance of renewable energy, because “it has become difficult” to carry out projects, whether water, waste or electricity, without opposition from the people.
The plan, explained today by the Minister of Environment and Energy in the Assembly of the Republic, within the scope of the specialized review of the State Budget Bill for 2027, is a requirement of the Renewable Energy Directive (the third version).
It can be a recommendation or a decree, said Maria da Graça Carvalho, explaining that it targets the renewable energy sectors but also water, waste, and mining.
It is important that there be, from the outset, “dialogue and transparency and compensation,” the minister said, illustrating with mining cases in Aljustrel and Castro Verde, which are well received because there was from the outset involvement of the populations, with compensation.
Maria da Graça Carvalho had already stated that the Ministry of Environment responds every month to several precautionary measures and that the situation is starting to be worrying.
But there are cases, she said at a meeting with journalists, referring to the Alentejo municipalities, where everything “works well” because there is involvement and benefits for the population.
“We are seeing what is needed to achieve better acceptance by the populations with respect to these projects,” she said.
“The minister emphasised that in projects that arise there must always be a component “of transparency, dialogue, information, with people, with local authorities, and then there must be a benefit for the populations that is not just at the outset, but lasting over time.”
And she illustrated that in the construction of a solar power plant one can propose an energy community for the people around it, who would enjoy cheaper energy.
Today, before the deputies, the minister said that the plan for accepting renewable energies is intended to avoid situations like those that occurred in Covas do Barroso, opposing a lithium mine, which had little acceptance from the population.
“We want there to be population acceptance of these projects, with reciprocation, transparency, and dialogue between companies and the population,” she said, noting that one of the controversial projects, the Sophia solar power plant (Beira Beixa), is being decided by the environmental impact assessment authorities.
Maria da Graça Carvalho agreed that the priority should be placing solar panels on rooftops, and on large surfaces such as warehouses, but she said that this is not enough and that it is necessary to continue with the projects, provided they are not in sensitive areas.
