EDP has just connected to the network its first hybrid project at a global scale, which combines the generation of wind and solar energy in a single location. Moreover, it is the first park in the Iberian Peninsula that combines both technologies, which entails an additional contribution to decarbonization and the rise of renewable energies in the electricity network.

The photovoltaic solar power plant of Mina de Orgueirel was installed in the municipality of Sabugal, in Portugal, next to the Wind Park of Mosteiro, interconnecting directly with its substation, leveraging the already existing electricity infrastructures and creating thus a hybrid complex of electricity production.

The new solar project has an installed power of 8,4 MW und around 17 000 bifacial photovoltaic solar panels, a technology that enables to benefit from the solar irradiation in both sides of the panel, maximizing the production of renewable energy.

The wind park has eight wind turbines and a total installed power of 11 MW, and already includes a more powerful turbine installed in the framework of an “overequipment” project. Since its launching in 2004, the wind park has produced more than 350 GWh of green energy.

All in all, this hybridization project could produce 39.5 GWh per year, enough to supply renewable energy to more than 30 000 people for a year.

This hybrid complex will also avoid the emission of around 18 000 tons of CO2 annually.

The hybridization of existent assets, through a combination of technologies such as the wind, the solar and the hydraulic, is one of the main paths towards the growth of renewable energies, with several benefits for the sector: boost of the projects’ efficiency, shared operation and application of the existent electricity infrastructures, promotion of the costs’ stability and reduction of the environmental impact.

EDP studies or develops nowadays more than 1600 MW in hybrid projects in Portugal and Spain in those technologies, in different stages of maturity, and expecting them to come into operation in the following years. The company aims to keep investing in similar projects in all its locations, and is already developing them in North America, South America, and some regions of Europe, such as Poland, Italy and Greece.

Group EDP has been pioneer at a European level in the development of renewable hybrid projects, having inaugurated in 2022 in Alqueva’s dam Europe’s biggest floating solar project  above a dam in a hydroelectric power plant.