TAKING STEPS FORWARD
APREN's main goal is for Portugal to have a higher share of renewable electricity in order to support the reduction of CO2 emissions and fight climate change.
BIOGRAPHY
António Sá da Costa holds a civil engineering degree from Technical University of Lisbon and a MSc and PhD in water resources from MIT. He is the current president of APREN and the vice president of the European Renewable Energy Federation (EREF). He was a consultant engineer for over 40 years, with special focus on small hydropower plants, wind farms, and environmental studies. He was formerly an associate professor of hydraulics and water resources at the Technical University of Lisbon.What is the importance of your role in promoting renewable resources for electrical production?
When we established this association 30 years ago, our objective was shaped by the fact that all electrical business production, transport, and distribution was owned by the state through EDP since 1976. The sector was subsequently opened to private investment. The role of the association remains essential to unifying the different investors in the system for the production of electricity. We want Portugal to have a higher share of renewable electricity in order to support the reduction of CO2 emissions and fight climate change. The companies that are members of APREN represent 93% of all renewable power installed in Portugal and on average produce a little more than half of the electricity consumed throughout the country. We work to find solutions for our sector and address technical and fiscal problems concerning the environment and electricity production. We started from a system that basically involved feed-in tariffs and transitioned gradually to one determined by the market.
What are some of the factors behind Portugal's successful development of wind energy?
We still depend a great deal on hydropower, which fluctuates between dry and rainy years. 2017 was a dry year, where we got only 42% from renewables, while the year before was a wet one, with 64%. The government realized we had to move away from fossil fuels for two main reasons: we do not have oil, gas, or coal, and we are too small of a country to have a nuclear power plant. By developing renewables, we avoided expending hard currency to buy something to burn. This has been extremely successful in terms of minimizing CO2 emissions as well. The other main fact was the use of the feed-in tariff policy. This was important to bring us a step forward to where we are today. Compared to other countries, we have not made retroactive changes in recent years. Now, we are doing things the traditional way, as well as moving toward a market-oriented remuneration of the system. We do not seek subsidized tariffs; rather, we want stability for investors as well as reduced costs for consumers. Neither of these two things are certain based on the current policy.
What potential do you foresee for Portugal to engage in energy produced by waves and ocean thermal energy conversion?
These are essentially what we call marine technologies. In Portugal, we have potential in the next 10-15 years to use two marine sources that have the best prospects in Portugal: offshore wind and waves. Marine-based electricity is important to develop, though it is not as important in terms of Portugal's supply of electricity because the adoption of these technologies is still far off in the future. Marine is extremely expensive compared to onshore. In the south of Portugal, there is double the amount of sun radiation of central Europe. However, if the growth in demand for electricity matures beyond our expectations, we will have to make use of marine technologies. We have excellent conditions to study, develop, and test offshore marine technologies, especially in waves and wind.
How does APREN participate more broadly in terms of European energy policy monitoring and implementation?
We do it through the four associations we belong to: the European Renewable Energy Federation (EREF), which is similar to APREN at the European level and has all the technologies; Wind Europe; Solar Power Europe; and European Biomass Association. We also have excellent connections with the European Parliament and Commission because we have been active for many years and have developed a great rapport with them.
TAKING STEPS FORWARD
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Focus: Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries
Making an Impact
Established in 1996, the Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries (CPLP) is a mechanism geared at linking and sharing the experience of Lusophone countries. Besides Portugal, this includes Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
read articleFocus
Don’t Mind the Disruption
Having won the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, Lisbon hosted the 2018 event. The relevance? Well, the contest began back in 1956 as a showcase not only of song, but of then-nascent live television broadcast technology. Today, Portugal is on the cutting edge of new technological developments.
read articleInterview
João Pedro Soeiro de Matos Fernandes , Minister , Environment and Energy Transition
The Ministry for the Environment and Energy Transition is focusing on decarbonizing the economy, valuing the territory and its habitats, and striving for a more circular use of the country's resources.
read articleInterview
António Braz Costa , General Manager, Portuguese Technological Centre for the Textile & Clothing Industries (CITEVE)
CITEVE has transformed the industry by promoting value addition, adopting the latest technologies, and ensuring the highest standards of environmental sustainability.
read articleFocus: New airport
Right Time to Seize Missed Opportunities
Portugal has seen its air traffic figures increase by as much as 80% in the last five years. As a result, its transportation infrastructure, and Lisbon's airport in particular, cannot cope with the rising numbers. A new airport project that will turn a military base into a commercial airport is now under discussion to bring much-needed relief to air traffic.
read articleInterview
Germano de Sousa , President, Grupo Germano de Sousa
Grupo Germano de Sousa's success can best be summed up by its understanding that science and medicine only really progress when technological development is combined with a deeper respect for human values and professional ethics.
read articleInterview
Isabel Capeloa Gil , Rector, Universidade Católica
Having pioneered the introduction of multiple subject areas to Portugal's tertiary education scene, Universidade Católica is aspiring to establish the country's first private medical school and introduce cutting-edge digital transformation.
read articleInterview
Carlos Guillén Gestoso , President, Escola Universitária de Ciências Empresariais, Saúde, Tecnologias e Engenharia & President, Atlantica University
Atlantica University differentiates through its company-university model and an MBA program in partnership with the University of California, Berkley, among other initiatives, to produce practical theoreticians.
read articleFocus: Public teaching staff
An Age-old Problem
Over a decade of austerity measures combined with an ageing population have seen the average age of the Portuguese public teaching staff progressively climb to one of the highest in the OECD. With frozen salaries, an extended retirement age, and precarious working conditions, today the sector faces one of its biggest challenge yet.
read articleInterview
Pedro Queiroz , General Manager, Federation of the Portuguese Agri-Food Industry (FIPA)
Portugal's economic recovery has seen its F&B sector emerge with annual turnovers of EUR16 billion, thanks to FIPA's undeterred focus on stable policies, excellent nutrition standards, and sustainability.
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