Miguel Marques drives the future of renewable energies at ANMP

The vice-presidency of Miguel Marques in the Municipal Section for Renewable Energies of ANMP opens a window of opportunity to accelerate local projects, clarify rules, and bring the energy transition closer to your home. The focus is on practical results: less bureaucracy, more clean production, efficient buildings, and direct benefits for families.

Miguel Marques in ANMP: renewable leadership with municipal and domestic impact

The election of Miguel Marques to the vice-presidency of the Municipal Section for Renewable Energies of ANMP signals a reinforcement of the role of territories in energy decision-making. An elected official in Oleiros and vice-president of the Beira Baixa Intermunicipal Community, he brings experience in management close to the populations, useful for turning goals into works, contracts, and tangible savings. The term runs until 2029, a sufficient horizon to structure investments and reap results.

This Section brings together a diverse team: Ana Rita Dias (Vila Pouca de Aguiar) presides, with Eduardo Tavares (Alfândega da Fé), Marta Prates (Reguengos de Monsaraz), and João Silva Cruz (Mangualde) strengthening the Board. The geographical and climatic plurality is a strength: from the Trás-os-Montes wind to the Alentejo sun, passing through waterways and mountains in the Center, the solutions vary, but the goal is common — to increase clean production and energy efficiency with local benefits.

At the top of the agenda emerges a decisive issue: the taxation of IMI on energy-producing centers such as dams, wind farms, and photovoltaics. When well calibrated, this tax helps offset territorial impacts and finance municipal programs for efficiency, support for energy poverty, and infrastructure maintenance. Fiscal predictability, combined with transparent criteria, creates trust for investors and fairness for those receiving projects in their territory.

Another sensitive dossier is the coordination between licensing, land use, and municipal participation. A more binding position of municipalities in technical opinions can prevent poorly planned developments, reduce conflicts, and align projects with local vocations. For you, this translates into less bureaucratic noise when needing to install solar panels, a heat pump, or improve the insulation of your home, thanks to clear rules and better-prepared municipal offices.

In parallel, municipalities gain leeway to structure energy communities, rehabilitate their own buildings with passive solutions, and mobilize networks of local suppliers. Imagine a primary school converted into a self-consumption reference, with photovoltaic roofs and efficient ventilation: it’s environmental education in practice and permanent relief on the public bill. Miguel Marques’ leadership can accelerate this turnaround, connecting political vision and technical execution.

For the reader, the gain is direct: more useful information, simplified applications for programs, and coherent guidance among municipality, region, and country. When governance is clear, domestic investment flourishes. Here lies the essential point of this new phase: municipal energy policy designed to generate comfort, health, and lighter bills.

Municipal renewable energy plans: from the territory to your electricity bill

The Municipal Energy and Climate Plans gain traction when they intersect cartography, consumption data, and realistic targets. With the ANMP Section more active, concrete roadmaps by municipality are expected: public rooftops inventoried, wind and solar areas mapped, protected environmental corridors, and a portfolio of prioritized projects by impact. The difference lies in the method: quantified targets, semantic timelines, and thermal comfort indicators, not just installed power.

Let’s take a case inspired by Oleiros: the municipality identifies three areas for medium-scale photovoltaics, associates local cooperatives as partners, and ensures transparent long-term leases. The contracts provide for an annual contribution to a Municipal Energy Fund, dedicated to insulating old homes, replacing heaters with heat pumps, and installing solar thermal in households. The result? Less emissions, more local employment, and stabilized electricity bills for vulnerable families.

In Vila Pouca de Aguiar, chaired by Ana Rita Dias, the priority may be on storage to manage peaks in wind production; in Reguengos de Monsaraz, led by Marta Prates, the solar vocation guides photovoltaic roofs with live shading, reducing thermal gains in summer; in Mangualde, with João Silva Cruz, the focus falls on the thermal rehabilitation of the housing stock, essential for comfort and health. The ANMP operates here as a laboratory for replicable best practices.

For you, the path may begin with a simple energy diagnosis: observe the bills of the last 12 months, record consumption peaks, and assess comfort by division. Then, three practical steps tend to generate 20% to 40% savings when combined: accessible insulation for roofs and walls, air-tightness of windows with quality seals, and replacing lighting with well-sized LEDs. Associating this with a microgeneration photovoltaic system of 2 to 4 kW, with or without battery, consolidates the gain.

Municipal coordination can also offer decision support offices: neutral return simulations, a list of qualified installers, and clear contract models. When the information is honest and comparable, costly choices and oversized solutions are avoided. This is the promised turnaround by an active Renewable Section: less complexity, more right decisions.

Finally, it is crucial to integrate electric mobility and efficient heating into the same reasoning. A home charger programmed for sunny hours, combined with a well-adjusted weather curve heat pump, transforms your home into a coherent ecosystem. In the coming years, those who plan integratively will reap the greatest savings and the best seasonal comfort. The message is clear: plan now, reap by 2029.

Efficient housing and passive houses: aligning architecture with the ANMP strategy

The cheapest building to heat is the one that loses the least heat and gains coolness effortlessly. The passive philosophy — continuous insulation, air-tightness, ventilation with heat recovery, and smart shading — fits within the municipal ambition to cut consumption and emissions. When municipalities and citizens row in the same direction, the result is a web of small victories: comfortable schools, health centers without condensation, homes that breathe clean air, and have solar energy.

Bioclimatic architecture starts with positioning. Maximizing solar gains in winter and protecting openings in summer with shades, balconies, or deciduous trees is halfway there. Then come the details that make the difference: correcting thermal bridges in pillars and balconies, windows with thermal breaks, glass with appropriate solar factors, and a well-considered layer of insulation. All of this reduces thermal loads and allows heat pumps to work at low consumption, ensuring stable comfort.

A practical example: in a 90s house in Oleiros, simply applying 10 to 12 cm of ETICS to facades, insulating the roof with rock wool, and replacing windows with A+ class cut heating needs by about 50%. With a photovoltaic system of 3.6 kW and a small water heater with resistance controlled by excess solar, hot water now mostly comes from the sun. Higher comfort, lower bills, and healthier indoor air — without radical works.

The municipal role here is to unlock information and monitoring. Seasonal thermography programs, free advisory offices, and partnerships with vocational schools can scale up local team training. When citizens realize, for example, that a VMC with heat recovery eliminates dampness and stabilizes indoor CO2, they stop seeing the equipment as luxury and start considering it health and productivity.

Tools and steps that work in your home

Three low-cost tools accelerate correct decisions: temperature and humidity logs by division (data loggers), consumption meters by outlet, and a visual audit of air leaks with a simple pressure test (door and exhaust). With this, prioritize what gives the fastest return. On the platform Ecopassivehouses.pt, practical guidance is available to sequence interventions and avoid waste.

If you are planning new construction, ask your designer to model seasonal thermal loads and explore low-footprint materials such as structural wood, cork, and natural mortars. Combine this with night ventilation in summer and passive solar gains in winter. For rehabilitation, think in reversible layers and phases: first the envelope, then the systems, finally photovoltaics and automation. The right balance avoids oversizing machines and ensures silent comfort, the best indicator of a successful project.

Financing, IMI, and clear rules: how ANMP can unlock local investments

Without a stable financial model, the transition drags on. The discussion about the IMI on energy-producing centers — dams, wind farms, photovoltaics — can be the key to provide municipalities with predictable revenues dedicated to energy efficiency and combating energy poverty. With a share of these revenues tied to local programs, families benefit, and the territory gains, improving the social acceptance of projects at the same time.

Transparency is the keyword. Publishing tax incidence maps, model contracts, and annual reports on revenue allocation builds trust. If local residents know that part of the IMI from a photovoltaic park finances the thermal rehabilitation of the neighborhood and the replacement of obsolete equipment with heat pumps, the conversation changes. Investors also appreciate it: fiscal predictability reduces risk and cost of capital.

Another common bottleneck is licensing. A municipal single window with standard checklists for residential self-consumption, grid connections, and energy communities shortens deadlines. Training technical teams and sharing best practices among municipalities via ANMP has an immediate effect. Add to this a firmer coordination with network operators to plan reinforcements and manage connection capacity and the scenario becomes fertile for serious investment.

Priorities in simple language for municipalities and families

• 🧭 Clear local planning: map rooftops, wind, and sensitive areas before licensing
• 🧾 Stable rules: predictable IMI with allocation to efficiency and social support funds
• ⚙️ Simple procedures: public checklists and maximum deadlines for self-consumption
• 🤝 Energy communities: sharing solar power among neighbors with transparent statutes
• 🏫 Public examples: schools and municipal pools as pilot projects of reference
• 📊 Monitoring: publish indicators of savings and comfort quarterly

Consider a typical scenario: a municipality creates an energy community with municipal rooftops and voluntary participation from residents. The surplus powers public equipment; members receive discounts proportional to their share. Part of the IMI from nearby photovoltaic parks feeds a fund that insulates elderly homes and provides LED kits and efficient ventilators. Clear rules, social mission, and open accounting: acceptance rises, and results do too.

In operational synthesis, the ANMP Section can be the missing center of gravity: bringing technicians, elected officials, and regulators around standard procedures and a shared calendar. The practical effect is measured in completed works, not announcements. The next step? Turning good intentions into drafts, guides, and ready-to-use agreements.

Inspiring examples and practical roadmap to 2029 for municipalities and families

Real scenarios help in decision-making. Imagine the “Ribeiro House,” a 140 m² dwelling in a valley of Beira Baixa: after an audit, the family replaces windows, insulates the roof with 16 cm of cork, and installs 4 kW of photovoltaic with microinverters. A heat pump supplies low-temperature radiant flooring. After 12 months, savings are around 35% on the bill, and summer comfort improves radically thanks to exterior shading and nighttime ventilation. No miracles, just good decisions in logical sequence.

In a reference municipality, the public pool switches to a heat pump with recovery of exhaust air, powered by 300 kW of photovoltaics in the neighboring park via an energy community. The result is a substantial drop in operating costs and improvement in indoor air quality. At the same time, the municipality creates an energy desk that helps families read budgets, compare proposals, and apply for incentives, reducing errors and delays.

To guide decisions until 2029, a simple roadmap in four fronts is useful: home, community, municipality, and financing. At home, focus on the envelope (insulation and airtightness), the systems (heat pump and VMC), and self-consumption. In the community, evaluate participation in collective projects on public rooftops. In the municipality, engage in consultations and share consumption data to improve planning. In financing, look for transparent contracts, with guarantees and maintenance provisions.

As an immediate starting point, a one-hour check already yields fruits: review the contracted power, install aerators on faucets, adjust thermostats, and schedule equipment for sunny hours. Then, plan interventions with greater impact based on measurements, not guesses. Use municipal networks and resources like Ecopassivehouses.pt to validate choices and avoid contractual traps.

In a country of varied climates and heterogeneous built heritage, unique solutions fail. The strength of this new phase in ANMP, with Miguel Marques as vice-president, lies in combining standardization of what matters (rules, metrics, deadlines) with local adaptation (climate, morphology, social fabric). When municipalities and citizens converge, a virtuous circuit is created where every invested euro pulls the next, and every comfort improvement strengthens the will to continue.

Before closing this reading, one simple action: choose today a space in your home and measure temperature and humidity for a week. This small snapshot helps decide where to invest first — and, step by step, transforms your dwelling into a more comfortable, efficient home ready for the future. 🌱

Source: rcb-radiocovadabeira.pt