“The projects for two mega-power plants in the Graça do Divor area, near the city of Évora, were not enough, and now a third one is up for public consultation”, lamented the civic platform “Juntos pelo Divor”, in a statement sent to Lusa news agency.

This third project, whose Scope Definition Proposal (PDA) of the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) is in public consultation until the 24th of this month, is promoted by Newcon40, based in Lisbon, and foresees 800,100 photovoltaic modules.

As for the other two, one is from Hyperion Renewables Évora, which was reformulated for a greater dispersion of the 394,500 panels and has the PDA also in public consultation, and the other is promoted by the company IncognitWorld 3, which proposes 362,076 modules.

According to the platform, the sum of these three plants gives almost 1,560,000 modules, a total installed power of around 1,000 megawatts (MW), an area of ​​panels alone of around 460 hectares and a total occupied area of ​​more than 1,300 hectares.

“If we bear in mind that the municipality of Évora has an area of ​​130 thousand hectares, it will be easy to calculate that these three mega-power plants, if they were built, would correspond to 1% of the area”.

Referring to data from the National Energy and Geology Laboratory, the “Juntos pelo Divor” platform highlighted that “1% is exactly the percentage of less sensitive areas in the municipality of Évora, therefore more suitable for the installation of photovoltaic plants”.

“Nothing in these PDAs allows us to understand where and how the panels will be implemented,” he highlighted, warning that the processes are “without any technical opinion from local and regional entities, as determined by the European directive that defines public consultation processes.”

“But we have to know how to read the essentials and act without delay”, he continued, pointing to participation “in the consultation, as a civic platform Juntos Pelo Divor – Paisagem e Patrimônio, as citizens and not only”.

This group of citizens argued that there are alternatives to the “assault on the north and northeast of Évora”, where the Divor substation of Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN) is located, which allows connection to the Public Service Electricity Grid.

“It can and should be considered a mistake to argue that this proximity has to be a criterion that overrides all others,” he said, proposing “the construction, in less impactful areas, of one or more substations along the 400kV [kilovolt] lines that leave this substation.”

In the statement, the civic platform reiterated that it is “in favour of renewable energy, as long as it is implemented in accordance with a participatory planning plan”.

“Once the plan is established, all parties will benefit,” as “investors will have clear rules for their bets and those who have the final burden of approving projects will have much easier decision-making criteria for implementation,” he highlighted.

Admitting that this work would require “data, time and, above all, political will, which has not been there”, the group of citizens considered that “it is urgent to stop and think”.

“Allowing the values ​​of biodiversity, landscape and heritage, which constitute the identity of this region, to be seen as ‘states of mind’ and not as planning criteria is to have learned nothing from the wise men of long-term investment who never gave up planting cork oaks,” he concluded.