Portugal set to start up Europe’s largest floating solar park

Portugal set to start up Europe’s largest floating solar park

























This article is published in collaboration with

Reuters





13 May 2022















































Portugal is preparing to start up Europe's largest floating solar park, with over 12,000 solar panels.

Long hours of sunshine and fast Atlantic winds have helped Portugal accelerate its shift to renewables.

Floating panels don’t require costly real estate and those on reservoirs used for hydropower are particularly cost effective as they can hook up to existing links to the power grid.

They have been installed in places from California to polluted industrial ponds in China, in the fight to cut CO2 emissions.



Two tugboats have moved a vast array of 12,000 solar panels, the size of four soccer pitches, to their mooring on Portugal's Alqueva reservoir in preparation to start up Europe's largest floating solar park in July.

EDP's floating solar farm in Portugal: the largest in Europe

Built by the country's main utility EDP on Western Europe's biggest artificial lake, the shiny floating island is part of Portugal's plan to cut reliance