Neoen has inaugurated Portugal’s largest solar park, a 272MWp facility comprising the Rio Maior and Torre Bela solar farms.
Located near Azambuja, 70km north of Lisbon, the fully commissioned project began feeding electricity into the grid in late 2024.
Together, the two solar farms will generate over 500GWh of electricity annually, equivalent to the consumption of 110,000 households, according to the French developer.
Eighty per cent of output will be sold under two 15-year power purchase agreements awarded in the 2019 capacity auction.
The remaining electricity and associated certificates of origin are being traded on the open market.
Rio Maior (204MWp) and Torre Bela (68MWp) are both wholly owned by Neoen and connected to the REN substation via a 400kV line.
The sites were developed within the walled perimeter of the Herdade da Torre Bela estate, with agricultural and biodiversity considerations built into the layout.
Neoen maintained 6,000 cork oaks and designed the park in 20-hectare plots separated by green corridors.
A visual screen of trees and shrubs helps the park blend into the surrounding landscape.
With this launch, Neoen now has 326MWp in operation or under construction in Portugal, including Coruche, Seixal and the under-construction Foral solar farms.
Its development pipeline exceeds 600MW, with projects in solar, wind and storage.
The company is planning a large battery storage facility and a new wind farm at Rio Maior, which it aims to develop into a “Green Power Hub”.
Neoen operates 400MW of batteries in Europe and nearly 1GW of grid-forming batteries in Australia.
Neoen Portugal head of business development Matilde Azevedo said: “We are particularly thankful to the ministry, regulator, environment agency, REN, the municipality of Azambuja and local communities for their support.”
Group CEO Xavier Barbaro said: “We are determined to deepen our engagement and to turn Rio Maior into a true Green Power Hub.”
