Solar projects are at the center of a strategic choice: to accelerate the energy transition responsibly, or to fall behind in an increasingly competitive and electrified market.
To guide decisions, this guide gathers challenges and practical responses, focused on what really matters for Portugal to meet climate goals with quality and a sense of place.
| Short on time? Here’s the essential: ⚡ | 🔎 |
|---|---|
| ✅ Key point #1 | Rooftops alone are not enough to meet the PNEC 2030; large-scale generation connected to the public service electrical grid and a reinforced network are required. ☀️ |
| ✅ Key point #2 | Plan projects with confirmed injection capacity, storage and demand management through contracts. 🔌 |
| ✅ Key point #3 | Avoid the trap: underestimate licensing, easements, and local acceptance. Transparency and shared benefits make a difference. 🧭 |
| ✅ Bonus | Environmental data matters: robust compensations, reforestation >50% and biodiversity monitoring strengthen the project. 🌱 |
Scale and territory: why rooftops are not enough to meet PNEC 2030
Debating solar projects begins by recognizing a simple fact: consumption grows faster than the available rooftop area. Think of the typical building in Lisbon, with six floors and two apartments per floor; the rooftop does not keep pace with the average power required by elevators, heat pumps, electric vehicles, and digital life.
At the same time, electrification is advancing in industry, logistics, climate control, and data centers. More clean and stable electricity is a matter of competitiveness and sovereignty, not just climate. This is where large-scale photovoltaic parks come in, as central infrastructure rather than an accessory.
Rooftop vs. utility scale: what each delivers
Rooftop installations reduce losses in the grid, empower families and businesses, and are essential for urban resilience. However, they do not provide the critical mass of gigawatts needed to power new industrial loads and data centers with redundancy. Plants connected to the public service electrical grid deliver volumes, long-term contracts, and predictability.
In practice, the combination yields the best results: rooftops for self-consumption and local microgrids, and large scale as the backbone of the system. The goal is not to choose a side, but to intelligently marry the two scales.
Location without illusions
Locating plants where the public service electrical grid has injection capacity is a decisive filter. Projects “beautiful on the map” lose years if they ignore connections, reinforcements, or easements. In Portugal, network expansion has lagged behind the pace of licenses, compressing deployment options and prices.
A good practice is to start the feasibility study with the grid: substations, line corridors, reinforcement timelines, and connection costs. Network first, layout later.
The S. Domingos example (fictional case, realistic scenario)
An agricultural cooperative in S. Domingos designed 12 MWp next to a regional substation. Instead of occupying the best arable land, it chose poor soils, with suitable slopes, and designed biodiversity strips between rows. The easement and evacuation line were agreed upon before environmental licensing, shortening a two-year wait and ensuring a viable final price.
This type of decision shows that technical planning reduces social conflict and economic uncertainty. The final effect is cheaper and earlier energy.
In summary, meeting the PNEC 2030 implies scale with criteria: rooftops where they make more sense and large-scale plants where the grid allows, always with territorial intelligence.
Network bottlenecks and licensing: what really holds back solar projects in 2025
If there is a transversal brake, it is called network capacity. The public service electrical grid has grown, but not at the speed of the project pipeline. In parallel, higher interest rates and cost volatility make administrative delays especially penalizing for the final energy price.
In licensing, coordination among municipalities, APA, and ICNF is crucial. When it fails, a missing hydrogeological study or an opinion on forest easement drags timelines for months. Predictable processes reduce risk and cut capital costs.
How to unlock the connection to the public service electrical grid
A winning approach combines three fronts: prior confirmation of capacity, modular design, and phased connection agreements. Projects that anticipate batteries to smooth peaks and load management contracts with nearby customers (industry, refrigeration, WWTP) gain technical priority by reducing congestion.
Another lever is transparency in capacity maps. The periodic publication of “living maps” guides investment and prevents excessive concentration in a single node.
Licensing with quality and speed
Swift licenses do not mean less rigor. They mean complete documents from the start, well-done noise, light, and fauna studies, and dialogue with the community before public consultation. When promoters arrive with clear mitigation measure packages, the process flows smoothly.
Municipalities value objective compensation: rehabilitated rural roads, firebreaks, water points for fire fighting. These actions, when anticipated in CAPEX and guaranteed contractually, increase trust.
Practical example: realistic timeline
For 80 MWp, a robust plan includes: 6 months of environmental and grid studies; 9 to 12 months of licensing; 12 months of construction with quarterly milestones. Every month gained in the initial phase saves tens of thousands of euros in interest and brings the operational start closer to periods of higher price in the market.
In the end, the brake is no longer “the bureaucracy” but the quality of planning. This is where projects differentiate themselves.
Environmental and forestry impacts: real data, myths and effective compensations
The environmental discussion needs numbers and context. In the last 20 years, only 5.19% of cork oaks and holm oaks removed have been associated with renewable projects. The bulk of losses results from various infrastructures and agricultural uses. In solar projects, removal is temporary, monitored and covered by compensatory measures.
When removal is inevitable, serious promoters exceed the legal minimum and reforest above 50% of the number of affected trees, with bank guarantees linked to performance. This practice creates a positive balance throughout the project’s life cycle.
Integrated ecological regeneration in design
Good projects do not “land” in a territory; they regenerate what surrounds them: recovery of compacted soils, enrichment of margins with native species, corridors for wildlife and maintenance of agroforestry mosaics. Biodiversity strips between rows of panels, with nectar-producing flora, favor pollinators and reduce dust.
Post-operation monitoring closes the loop: bird counts, camera traps, soil and water indicators. Public data generates trust and learnings for the sector.
Brightness, noise, landscape: what experience shows
Reflection studies show that modern photovoltaic panels have a brightness index lower than that of water. Operational noise is low, concentrated in the inverters and during the daytime. Regarding the landscape, chromatic solutions, vegetated slopes, and controlled heights mitigate visual impact, especially from viewpoints and main roads.
Where sensitivity is higher (tourist routes, heritage), the best approach is to reduce module density in visual fronts and compensate with layout optimization in other sectors of the land.
Reference cases and useful lessons
There are plants in Portugal with over 20 years of history, accompanied by monitoring programs that document the improvement of peripheral habitats, reduction of erosion, and return of species. What explains the success? Adaptive management plans: when data shows a deviation, fences are adjusted, cutting is reduced, and more shade is planted.
In the balance, well-implemented solar energy does not compete with nature; it helps fund and stabilize it.
Local economic value and territorial cohesion: how solar energy redistributes opportunities
In many municipalities in the interior, a solar park is the largest investment of the decade. This means dozens of direct jobs in construction, local services booming (restaurants, accommodation, workshops), reinforced municipal revenues, and, above all, the possibility of retaining qualified young people.
When contracts avoid peaks and valleys, local companies plan better and reinvest. The multiplier impact is real: every euro spent on construction pulls several euros in services, from topography to security.
Shared benefit models that work
The most solid path combines three instruments: annual funds for community projects, energy discounts for vulnerable consumers, and local supply contracts for SMEs. When the community feels the project in their daily lives, acceptance grows and conflict diffuses.
There are also fiscal and heritage gains: requalification of rural roads, charging points for electric vehicles, reinforcement of civil protection with water points and fuel management strips. These measures remain beyond the lifespan of the plant.
Case study: cooperative and municipality aligned
In a model scenario in Alentejo, the municipality negotiated a clear package with the developer: 2% of annual income for a local fund, priority to suppliers from the municipality, and technical training in partnership with the school center. The result was immediate employability and a pipeline of technicians ready for maintenance and new works.
Meanwhile, neighboring farmers installed agrovoltaic light, improving the thermal comfort of soils and productivity of sensitive crops. Energy and agriculture mutually reinforced each other.
Why this matters to the country
Portugal needs competitive clean energy to attract industry and digital services. Well-integrated solar projects lower the average system cost and create a base for green exports and renewable fuels. It’s local development with national effect.
The key point is simple: without territory, there is no transition. With well-managed territory, everyone wins.
Integration with storage and demand management: stability, price, and energy security
The serious debate about solar in 2025 is no longer “if” to install, but “how to integrate” to provide stability to the system. Batteries, flexibility contracts, and forecasting software transform photovoltaic plants into dispatchable and valuable assets for the public service electrical grid.
This is the antidote to curtailment and volatility: store when there is surplus, deliver when there is shortage. At the same time, industries adjust thermal and cold loads based on price, aligning production with sunshine.
Storage: the invisible friend of the solar curve
For plants of 50 to 100 MWp, batteries of 1 to 2 hours already change the game: they mitigate ramps at sunset and improve revenue in intraday markets. In communities, 250 kWh in a charging station solve peak hours without enlarging cables.
The secret lies in control: weather and consumption forecasting algorithms, integrated with SCADA, decide when to charge and inject. This stabilizes frequency and increases the value of renewable kWh.
Active demand management
Large consumers can commit to flexibility windows. Cold storage, pumping stations, and data centers modulate consumption based on price signals. It is cheaper to shift load than to overdimension the grid.
There is also the opportunity of Power-to-X: produce green hydrogen when there is photovoltaic surplus and consume that chemical energy in industrial processes or heavy mobility, reinforcing energy security.
Immediate action plan
- 🔍 Audit the connection point and confirm available capacity before any land commitment.
- 🗺️ Cross environmental sensitivity with grid maps to define the optimal site and reduce conflicts.
- 🔋 Size batteries and contractual flexibility with anchor clients nearby.
- 🤝 Co-create local benefits: community fund, technical training, and local suppliers.
- 📊 Publish environmental monitoring and compensation performance, with annual targets.
When these steps are followed, the result is reliable energy, more stable prices, and allied communities. This is how a transition is made that lasts.
If you are assessing a project, start today with a simple gesture: open the public service electrical grid map, identify substations with margin and confirm easements on the land. The rest builds on this solid base — with respect for the territory and clear benefits for all.
Source: expresso.pt
