“It is with astonishment that the civic platform Juntos Pelo Divor – Paisagem e Patrimônio notes that the gaps and omissions identified, which led the APA to classify the PDAs as insufficient, only had the decisive consequence of not binding the administration”, it states in a statement.

The Juntos Pelo Divor – Paisagem e Patrimônio platform refers to the PDAs for projects by the companies Newcon40 and Hyperion Renewables Évora, planned for the Graça do Divor area in this municipality, with a total of 1,194,600 photovoltaic modules.

Noting that, with this decision by the APA, “the projects will not stop” and that “both are in the execution phase”, the platform warns that the size of the plants has “irreversible impacts” in several areas and “is not questioned, defying the most basic common sense”.

“A management plan is needed for the energy transition at a national and regional level”, it warns, considering that decentralized production and the relocation of the plants constitute “civic imperatives that the APA must consider”.

The two PDAs were open for public consultation until mid-March of this year, but only the APA's decision regarding the EIA of the Newcon40 project is available for consultation on the Participa portal, while Hyperion's remains under analysis.

However, the Juntos Pelo Divor – Paisagem e Patrimônio platform says that the decision regarding Hyperion's was issued on April 10 and that the portal “did not inform subscribers or participants”, criticizing the APA for the alleged failure.

Even so, this group of citizens reveals that “the two PDAs received a negative evaluation from the APA”, pointing out that the decisions contradict previous documents on the photovoltaic plant projects for the Graça do Divor area.

Consulted by Lusa, the APA's decision on the PDA of the Newcon40 project says that the proposal “presents several gaps in relation to the structure and content” regarding the technical standards for the preparation of this type of document.

Another gap “is associated with the omission of projects of the same type planned for the study area”, it points out, claiming that this information is “crucial, especially since the assessment of cumulative impacts becomes particularly relevant given the prospect of implementing several power generation centers nearby”.

The APA concludes that the proposal “seems insufficient to serve as a guide for the preparation of the respective EIA”, which is why it determines that the Evaluation Committee is not bound by the content of the EIA proposed in the presented PDA.

Three photovoltaic solar plants are planned for the northern and northeastern areas of the municipality of Évora, specifically Newcon40, which foresees 800,100 photovoltaic modules, Hyperion, with 394,500 panels, and another promoted by the company IncognitWorld 3, which proposes 362,076 modules.

According to the civic platform, the sum of these three plants gives almost 1,560,000 modules, a total installed power of around 1,000 megawatts (MW), an area of ​​just panels of around 460 hectares and a total occupied area of ​​more than 1,300 hectares.