Portugal signaled the launch of one of Europe's biggest wind-power projects on Wednesday, a move that will supply enough electricity for 750,000 homes.
The contract is the equivalent to a quarter of all the wind power installed in the EU last year. It will help cement the growing reputation of Portugal as a renewable energy champion. This year, it has already approved the building of the world's largest solar plant.
The new wind project will rank Portugal alongside Denmark and Spain as the European countries with the highest proportion of wind energy in the national grid.
The winning consortium will be asked to erect about 500 turbines at various locations.
"This is definitely one of the biggest tenders we've seen [in Europe]," Christian Kjaer, policy director at the Brussels-based European Wind Energy Association said. "We've seen those [auctions] more in the United States and Canada."
Half a dozen consortiums featuring some of Europe's biggest power companies were expected to have lodged their bids for the two-phase 1,500-megawatt project by Wednesday night's deadline. The winner is expected to be announced during the summer.
Portugal's Socialist government also aims to create 1,600 jobs by allocating 900 million euros (US$1 billion) for turbine equipment manufacturing.
With an 837-kilometer coastline, often battered by Atlantic gales, Portugal is well-placed to take advantage of wind-power.
Last year, the country increased its wind-power target for 2010 from 3,750 to 4,400MW. Lisbon is looking to wind to help meet its goals under the Kyoto protocol on curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
Portugal's emissions surged almost 37 percent from 1990 to 2003 -- the third-highest increase in the world. One of the EU's poorer countries has, however, already shown signs of leading Europe in renewable energy.
Its energy plans range from the world's first commercial wave farm to putting a hydroelectric dam on its last big undammed river, the Sabor. The government set aside a 2.5 billion euro renewable energy war chest last year.
It recently granted a license for the world's biggest solar energy plant, which will be able to produce enough electricity to power 21,000 homes for the southern town of Moura.
The plant will use 350,000 solar panels spread over an area the size of 150 football pitches. It will be 12 times the size of the biggest solar power plant currently in operation near Leipzig, Germany.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in