Presidential candidate Catarina Martins stated this Sunday, December 7, that business cannot be done for a handful of people who care about the lives of the thousands who live in the interior, in an allusion to the Sophia solar plant project.
“Here in Beira Baixa, a series of huge solar plants are being installed. We are talking about the equivalent of 400 football fields, with photovoltaic panels. It’s absurd. The project [central solar] Sophia photovoltaic plant is one of the last major projects that is now threatening the population”, declared the MEP and former coordinator of the Bloco de Esquerda (BE), to the Lusa agency.
The presidential candidate supported by BE traveled to the town of Mata da Rainha, in the municipality of Fundão, district of Castelo Branco, to listen to the concerns of the local community about the Sophia photovoltaic solar plant project.
This project covers the municipalities of Fundão, Idanha-a-Nova and Penamacor, in the district of Castelo Branco, and represents an investment of around 590 million euros, for an installed capacity of 867 MWp (Megawatt peak).
This is a project with 390 hectares of area occupied by photovoltaic modules, 435 hectares considering all infrastructure, and a total of 1,734 hectares of fenced area.
“We are ruining very productive agricultural land, absolutely necessary for the country, for its food sovereignty and for its ecological balance with photovoltaic panels. There’s no reason to do it”, he maintained.
Catarina Martins understands that the production of solar energy in Portugal can and should be carried out for the energy transition, but “it has to be decentralized and not with large fields that are killing agricultural land”.
“Right now they are cutting down trees that are prohibited from being cut down for good reasons. They are destroying the natural landscape and they are destroying the productive and agricultural capacity of this land and the quality of life and environment of these populations”, stressed the presidential candidate.
The MEP has already questioned the European Union on this matter and is waiting for the European Commission to comment soon.
“I don’t think we can do business for a handful of people at the expense of the lives of the thousands of people who live here. Portugal cannot be this,” he said.
Catarina Martins argues that a good economy is not one in which “some make big deals for their pockets”.
“A good economy is one that respects the populations and the population of Beira Baixa is already sacrificed too many times with businesses that only destroy their quality of life and bring them nothing. On the contrary. On top of that, they find themselves abandoned without fundamental public services and the need to have a well-paid quality job, which none of these centers will bring them”, he stressed.