“The reformulation now presented does not resolve the serious environmental impacts identified in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, nor the significant effects on local populations, therefore [SPEA] argues that the project should be definitively rejected,” reads a statement from the non-governmental organisation (NGO) that promotes the study and conservation of birds in Portugal.

According to this entity, the proposed reformulation of the project “does not solve the problems already identified” in the initial public consultation, maintaining “high risks for threatened species and cumulative impacts both for ecosystems and for the people who live in the region.”

Until 4 February, the revised proposal for the Alcoutim Photovoltaic Power Plant’s wind hybridisation project (also known as Solara4) is open for public consultation. This revision follows an unfavourable opinion from the Evaluation Committee (CA) regarding the original proposal.

The NGO emphasises that the project’s promoter itself acknowledges, in the revised proposal, that the CA classified the impacts as “very significant and non-minimizable negative impacts, admitting that there is no technical scope for an effective revision.”

“When a project is proposed to be installed in a demonstrably unsuitable location, no mitigation or compensation measures are effective,” states Pedro Neto, executive director of SPEA, quoted in the press release.

The Portuguese Society for the Study of Environmental Law (SPEA) highlights the promoter’s attitude regarding the direct impacts on the population as “particularly worrying.”

Despite villages like Malfrades and Monte das Preguiças being located less than 800 metres from the turbines planned for the wind farm project, the main mitigation measure proposed is limited to “informing and raising awareness” among the people living in these areas that they will be “subject to an uncomfortable and potentially propagating noise level.”

For SPEA, this approach “normalises the exposure of populations to negative impacts instead of preventing them.”
According to the organisation, the project threatens a critical area for the survival of several endangered bird species, and the installation of wind turbines would jeopardise an important migratory corridor used by soaring birds such as eagles, storks, and vultures.

“It would also jeopardise the conservation of large eagles in Portugal, including the main national breeding nucleus of Bonelli’s eagle,” the statement reads.

Pedro Neto insists that “this is not an isolated project, it is yet another blow to an ecologically sensitive region” and that the northeastern Algarve “is one of the last strongholds for endangered species.”

The Solara4 project foresees a park composed of 25 wind turbines, with a unit nominal power of 6.6 MW (megawatts) and a total power of 165 MWn (thermal power in the reactor).

SPEA joins other environmental defence entities that have already warned about the risks of this wind power project.