Portugal decommissioned the last coal-fired power plant

Portugal decommissioned the last coal-fired power plant on the same day in which the project for a new 150-megawatt solar plant was announced, which represents an investment of 120 million euros. This plant obtained the lowest energy price in the world during the auction held in 2019: 14.76 euros per megawatt/hour (MWh).

The Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa claimed that "the more we invest in renewables, the cheaper energy will become for households and companies."

António Costa noted that "the 2019 auction, when the licence for the power plant was granted, set a world record for the lowest price", adding that "the 2020 auction beat that record". 

However, if it is not possible "to keep beating lowest price records", "we have proof that investing in renewable energies means creating better standards of living for households and greater competitiveness for the economy".

The energy transition allows Portugal to "strengthen its energy autonomy, which means re-balancing the trade balance as we no longer import and will have an increasingly greater capacity to export the energy we do not consume".

With this transformation, "Portugal can enhance the resources available throughout the entire territory", he said. "Without removing anything we had, we offered economic value to an endogenous resource we weren’t making the most of", and especially the inland areas, with lower populations and less developed economically will gain a new opportunity "not just during the construction phase, but also in the future", he added.

António Costa noted that "to win the challenge of climate change, the world and Europe will increase the carbon tax, which means that fossil fuels will become increasingly more expensive. The difference in the inflation rates between those countries that depend more or less on fossil fuels is mostly due to investment made in renewables", he stated.

The Energy Regulator announced the energy prices for next year, and in a context where there is a rise in the cost of energy in the regulated electricity market, households will see a 3.4% drop in prices and the industry feed-in charges will drop by 97%.

"The lowering of solar power generation costs has opened up new opportunities: since we have a large coast and vast ocean, with this cost in solar power we have become highly competitive for hydrolysis, which allows us to produce green hydrogen to feed our industry, heavy public transport and exports", the Prime Minister said. 

This opens the possibility for regions who are facing the threat of drought to desalinate sea water "which before, would have unbearable costs".

 

The decommissioning of coal-fired power plants (Sines in January and Abrantes on 30 November 2021) and the closing of the Matosinhos oil refinery, as well as the need for energy reconversion in glass and ceramics industries have led the Government to approve a series of measures.

This package, which is called Measures for a Fair Transition, has 224 million euros for the professional reconversion of workers, opening new companies that reuse local resources and to create jobs and wealth in the regions.

The responses created "show that we can have an energy transition without leaving anyone behind, ensuring that the historical landmark of a Portugal without coal generated energy is possible, with gains for the environment and without losing jobs, income or the attractiveness of the territory", said the Prime Minister. 

In the case of Abrantes power plant, with a point to feed into the grid, "a new bid will be held to install new sources of energy production that generate economic activity and jobs that help to replace energy produced using coal with energy from renewable sources".

"Accordingly, we maintain energy security" – the two coal-fired plants ensured 28% of electricity production in 2015 -, "making sure that not having energy produced from coal is not a risk for losses in energy production, rather meaning Portugal is less dependent on imported coal, enhancing our own resources", he claimed. 

Today, mankind is confronted with the challenge of "stopping the process of climate change, a challenge felt particularly in Portugal, as Portugal is one of the countries most affected by climate change: coastal erosion, drought, and the risk of wildfires".

António Costa underlined that "even if we meet the Paris Agreement targets to keep temperature rises at 1.5º, the risk of wildfires will increase six-fold in Portugal. As such, Portugal was the first country in the world to undertake the goal of being carbon neutral by 2050 in 2016 in Marrakesh".