Galp inaugurates its first major solar project in Portugal

Portugal oil and gas company Galp opened a 144MW solar energy project involving four solar parks in Alcoutim in the Algarve today.

The project, which began in March 2022, is the company’s first integrated solar park in Portugal and represents Galp’s biggest investment in solar energy to date.
The project comprises four photovoltaic parks with the capacity to power 80,000 homes per annum, removing a potential 75,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum. Part of the project had already begun production in 2022.
Galp New Energies currently has 97MW of operations in Portugal and with this addition in the Algarve now has an extra 1GW of solar capacity, around 7% of the country’s installed capacity in renewable energies.
Hydropower dominates in Portugal with 46% of renewable capacity, followed by eolic wind energy with 38%
The opening ceremony of the solar park, which is in the district of Faro, was held in the presence of Galp New Energies’ CEO Filipe Silva, the Minister of the Environment, Duarte Cordeiro, and the Mayor of Alcoutim, Osvlado dos Santos Gonçalves.
The company had 1.4GW of renewable capacity in 2022 and expects to achieve 1.6GW this year, with hopes to reach a 4GW output in 2025.
Galp has other solar projects in Portugal providing 500MW of power, including a 343MW project in Ourique and 8MW in Odemira.
At the start of the week Galp announced that it would press ahead with €650 million of investments at its refinery in Sines with a new biofuels production unit for air and road transport that should be up and running by the end of 2025, as well as a green hydrogen plant according to Jornal Económico.