The Danish clean energy project developer Eurowind Energy has connected its new 22 MWp Triana Solar Power Park to the Portuguese grid. Located north of Lisbon in Alenquer, the 30-hectare plant features just over 41,000 bifacial photovoltaic modules from LONGi, the largest module manufacturer globally.
Triana will provide electricity to 14,100 households, reducing the region's carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 19,000 tons. The park's total energy yield is expected to average 41.5 GWh annually.
Speaking to the process of bringing such a utility project to fruition, Eurowind Managing Director Southern Europe Pedro Pereira pointed to the importance of their choice of partners: "Having LONGi on board as a supplier was very helpful in financing the project since the company is known as a highly reliable partner. But through the stages of development and construction, too, working with LONGi meant we had a transparent, communicative partner and always knew where we stood."
Changing Portuguese solar market poised to explode
Construction on the plant, which began at the end of 2021 following a five-year development period, was completed in October of 2022. While the early years of the project's development presented challenges typical to the Portuguese market at the time, the country has recently made strides in simplifying its permitting and connection processes. By mid-2022 Portugal had already seen more new photovoltaic capacity installed than the total amount in 2021. The government has set a target of 9 GW total capacity by the year 2026.
Eurowind Energy is planning to begin construction on a further 50MW of solar capacity later this year.