The residential and tourist resort of Vilamoura, in the Algarve, has decided to create a Renewable Energy Community (REC) with 60,000 m2 of photovoltaic panels by 2035, which will provide electricity to 15,000 families, becoming a pioneer in the application of recent legislation.
"The aim is to be one of the first and probably one of the largest to make and promote a Renewable Energy Community," Vilamoura World's chief executive officer (CEO), João Brion Sanches, told Lusa news agency. The RECs are made up of a group of consumers that, through an energy production system and shared electrical network, produce part or all of the electricity they consume.
The project envisages, in total and by 2035, the installation of around 60,000 square metres of photovoltaic panels in the Vilamoura area, with an estimated annual production potential of 50,000 megawatt-hours (MWh), sufficient to supply electricity to around 15,000 homes, according to a statement.
The production of the renewable energy will avoid the emission of, approximately, 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, the equivalent of planting about 80,000 trees every year, according to the note.
Vilamoura invests in sustainability in all its real estate projects
In the first phase, by 2024, the Vilamoura REC will enable the production of 2,000 MWh of renewable energy per year, which translates into the supply of electricity to more than 1,000 households, in an initial reduction of about 450 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
"Our vision for Vilamoura, as the best destination in the Algarve for living, holidaying and investing, also implies betting on sustainability. That is why we decided to go ahead with this ambitious project, which will apply to all our real estate projects and is extensible to the already consolidated areas of Vilamoura," said João Brion Sanches.
The concept of Renewable Energy Communities goes hand in hand with that of collective self-consumption, the difference between the two being in the type of management and investment made. A REC is an entity set up under the terms of the provisions of a decree-law of 2022 that makes the entire investment for the creation of the entity, while in collective self-consumption the final consumers produce renewable energy for their own consumption and can share the excess produced with other consumers.
"This community is very pioneering, in the sense that there are very few in Portugal. All this is very recent", insists the head of the Vilamoura development.
Vilamoura World is the company responsible for promoting the residential and tourist plots inserted in the 1,700 hectares of the development. It also owns the Vilamoura Marina, the largest in Portugal, with 825 berths for boats. The company LuzSimples, based in São Bartolomeu de Messines, also in the Faro district, was chosen to carry out the project to create the CER.
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